US to press Russia on Bashar al-Assad

US secretary of state John Kerry, accompanied by US ambassador to Russia John Tefft (right), arrives at the US embassy in Moscow. (Photo: AP)

US secretary of state John Kerry is expected to press President Vladimir Putin on how Russia sees a future political transition in Syria and the fate of President Bashar al-Assad.

With a fragile truce in place in Syria and warring sides attending peace talks in Geneva, Mr Kerry wants to “get down to brass tacks” on the question of Mr Assad’s future, a state department official said.

While the US wants Mr Assad to step aside, Russia says only the Syrian people can decide his fate, and has bristled at any talk of regime change.

Mr Kerry is holding talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin on Thursday, in a meeting arranged after the Russian leader’s surprise announcement on March 14 that he was partially withdrawing his forces from Syria.

“The secretary would like to now really hear where President Putin is in his thinking... on a political transition” in Syria, the official said as Mr Kerry arrived in Moscow.

“Obviously what we are looking for, and what we have been looking for, is how we are going to transition Syria away from Assad’s leadership,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The state department official said meetings with Mr Putin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov would evaluate the status of the ceasefire and try to “get on the same page” about ending violations and increasing humanitarian assistance.

Russia this week threatened to act unilaterally against those who violate the ceasefire unless it reached a deal with the US on ways to detect and prevent truce breaches.

The Syrian Opposition has accused government forces of renewing sieges and stepping up a campaign of barrel-bombing across the country.

In Geneva, where warring sides are a week into talks on ending the conflict, government officials have rejected any discussion on the fate of Mr Assad, who Opposition leaders say must go as part of any transition.

UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said on Tuesday that he hoped the US-Russia meeting would give an impetus to the peace talks where the divisive issue of a political transition is stalling progress.

But the state department official played down expectations that the meeting would have an immediate impact on the talks, which adjourn on Thursday with the next round expected in early April.

A Syrian activist at the talks, Jihad Makdissi, said Mr de Mistura was planning to issue a paper on a “potential common vision”.

The Syrian government delegation said the UN envoy had handed them a document which they would study on their return to Damascus. No details of either paper were disclosed. However, the UN said the Syrian government had given verbal assurances that aid convoys can go into three or four areas that its forces are besieging.