Kerry Counts on Russia to Help Chart Course Out of Syria's Hell
By Nicole Gaouette
@nicolegaouette
October 28, 2015 — 9:34 PM EDT
Updated on October 29, 2015 — 11:07 AM EDT
After four weeks of condemning Vladimir Putin’s intervention in Syria, the U.S. is gambling that the Russian president’s move has somehow changed the calculus in the region for the better.
The Americans are working on the assumption that Russia is already discovering what President Barack Obama predicted: That its efforts to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are landing it in a “quagmire,” opening up diplomatic possibilities as Russia deals with the unintended consequences of championing a weak regime.
The issue was to play out in multinational talks in Vienna on Thursday and Friday that Secretary of State John Kerry said are intended to “chart a course out of Hell” after a war that has cost more than 250,000 lives over four and half years.
After Kerry arrived in Vienna on Thursday, his schedule for the day included a one-on-one session with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, according to a U.S. official who asked not to be identified discussing the itinerary. It would be the first in-person discussion since Kerry and Zarif negotiated the deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-29/kerry-counts-on-russia-to-help-chart-course-out-of-syria-s-hell
