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MOSCOW (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on
Tuesday accepted Russia's long-standing demand that President Bashar
Assad's future be determined by his own people, as Washington and Moscow
edged toward putting aside years of disagreement over how to end
Syria's civil war.
"The United States and our
partners are not seeking so-called regime change," Kerry told reporters
in the Russian capital after meeting President Vladimir Putin. A major
international conference on Syria would take place later this week in
New York, Kerry announced.
Kerry reiterated
the U.S. position that Assad, accused by the West of massive human
rights violations and chemical weapons attacks, won't be able to steer
Syria out of more than four years of conflict.
But
after a day of discussions with Assad's key international backer, Kerry
said the focus now is "not on our differences about what can or cannot
be done immediately about Assad." Rather, it is on facilitating a peace
process in which "Syrians will be making decisions for the future of
Syria."
Kerry's declarations crystallized the
evolution in U.S. policy on Assad over the last several months, as the
Islamic State group's growing influence in the Middle East has taken
priority.
President Barack Obama first called
on Assad to leave power in the summer of 2011, with "Assad must go"
being a consistent rallying cry. Later, American officials allowed that
he wouldn't have to resign on "Day One" of a transition. Now, no one can
say when Assad might step down.
Russia, by
contrast, has remained consistent in its view that no foreign government
could demand Assad's departure and that Syrians would have to negotiate
matters of leadership among themselves. Since late September, it has
been bombing terrorist and rebel targets in Syria as part of what the
West says is an effort to prop up Assad's government.
"No
one should be forced to choose between a dictator and being plagued by
terrorists," Kerry said. However, he described the Syrian opposition's
demand that Assad must leave as soon as peace talks begin as a
"nonstarting position, obviously."
Earlier
Tuesday in the Kremlin, Putin noted several "outstanding issues" between
Russia and its former Cold War foe. Beyond Assad, these include which
rebel groups in Syria should be allowed to participate in the transition
process and which should be deemed terrorists, and like the Islamic
State group and al-Qaida, combatted by all.
Jordan
is working on finalizing the list of terrorist vs. legitimate
opposition forces. Representatives of Syria's opposition themselves hope
this week to finalize their negotiating team for talks with Assad's
government. The U.S., Russia and others hope those talks will begin
early next year.
Appearing beside Kerry,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hailed what he described as a
"big negotiating day," saying the sides advanced efforts to define what a
Syrian transition process might look like.
The
two countries also have split on Ukraine since Russia's annexation of
the Crimea region last year and its ongoing, though diminished, support
for separatist rebels in the east of the country. The U.S. has pressed
severe economic sanctions against Russia in response and has insisted
that Moscow's actions have left it isolated.
That wasn't the case on Tuesday.
"We
don't seek to isolate Russia as a matter of policy, no," Kerry said.
The sooner Russia implements a February cease-fire that calls for
withdrawal of Russian forces and materiel and a release of all
prisoners, he said, the sooner that "sanctions can be rolled back."
The
world is better off when Russia and the U.S. work together, he added,
calling Obama and Putin's current cooperation a "sign of maturity."
"There is no policy of the United States, per se, to isolate Russia," Kerry stressed.
---
Klapper reported from Washington.
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