LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Talks among the United States, Russia and critical Middle East states aimed at brokering a new pause in Syria’s war broke up after a few hours on Saturday without signs of progress, or a break in the Syrian government’s ferocious assault on rebel-held parts of the city of Aleppo.
Secretary of State John Kerry began the talks in the Swiss lakeside city of Lausanne, meeting one-on-one with his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov. Their 40-minute encounter, described as “businesslike” by a State Department spokesman, John Kirby, came 12 days after Washington suspended bilateral contacts with Moscow and called for a war crimes investigation into Russian actions in Syria.
Kerry and Lavrov then headed into talks with the foreign ministers from regional powers involved in the conflict, including Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, along with the U.N. mediator, Staffan de Mistura. The diplomats left about four hours later with terse comments that gave away nothing of substance.
Before the talks began, both sides had played down prospects of a breakthrough.
Kerry, who was expected to leave Sunday for talks in London with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, told reporters that discussions with Russia and the Middle East states would resume Monday.
Lavrov went into the talks saying he would focus on fulfilling an earlier agreement that called for separating Western-backed rebels in Syria from hard-line jihadi groups like the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, which now calls itself the Levant Conquest Front. He emerged from the meetings saying only that the parties had discussed “some ideas” and had agreed to meet in coming days, “expecting certain agreements which would help promote” a settlement, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
That brought no prospect of early relief for the beleaguered quarter of a million residents of rebel-held eastern Aleppo, who are facing what international aid agencies have called the heaviest bombardment since the collapse of a truce three weeks ago.
Syrian and Russian aircraft bombed four hospitals in Aleppo on Friday, causing severe damage to a major trauma facility, Doctors Without Borders reported, calling it the worst damage inflicted on already battered health facilities since the end of September.