AFP, Sept. 8, 2016 – The US pressed Russia on Thursday for a “true cessation of hostilities” in Syria ahead of expected high-level peace talks in Geneva, warning that its patience is running thin.
Foreign ministers from the two powers, which support opposite sides in the five-year conflict, were poised to hold a “personal meeting” in the Swiss city to push for a peace agreement, according to the Russian side.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with his US counterpart Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders Summit in Hangzhou on September 5, 2016

However, Washington did not confirm the face-to-face talks, with a spokesman for US Secretary of State John Kerry saying that negotiations were still ongoing.
And US Defense Secretary Ash Carter told BBC radio on Thursday there was “quite a long way to go” before a final deal could be struck.
He called for “a true cessation of hostilities — not what you’ve seen, which is a partial cessation of hostilities”, adding: “Our patience is not unlimited.”
Both sides have agreed that a deal would involve a durable ceasefire, humanitarian access to conflict-wracked areas and a resumption of peace talks.
The Syria war has pitted the old Cold War rivals against each other, with Russia flying a bombing campaign in support of Syrian strongman leader Bashar al-Assad and the United States backing rebel groups fighting to oust him from power.

  Russia and the US — on opposite sides in the five-year conflict in Syria — have been trying to thrash out a deal in recent weeks to revive a ceasefire on the ground

US President Barack Obama held talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in China but failed to bridge their differences.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that new US sanctions over the Ukraine crisis have hampered joint efforts by both sides to resolve “regional conflicts” — a reference to the Syria war.
And Carter noted: “We have our differences, serious differences, with Russia elsewhere, especially here in Europe with Ukraine and elsewhere Russia has been acting in an aggressive manner.”

– 18-month transition –

Syrians walk through the rubble following a reported air strike by Syrian government forces in the rebel-held neighborhood of Bustan al-Qasr

As diplomatic efforts intensified, fighting in the complex war continued to claim lives, with Turkish shelling over the border into Syria killing six US-backed Kurdish fighters.
An AFP correspondent in the city’s east said shops had been struggling since Sunday to secure goods to sell and that prices were skyrocketing.
“The price of a kilo of meat rose from 3,000 pounds ($6) to 6,000,” complained Ahmad, a father of three children, in the Bustan al-Qasr district which has been ravaged by air strikes and barrel bombs.
In London on Wednesday, the under-fire Syria opposition fleshed out a proposal for a transition to democracy without Assad after a six-month negotiating phase with the regime.
The opposition hopes new talks would result in an 18-month transition that would see Syria governed by an interim body made up of opposition figures, current government representatives and members of civil society, according to a 25-page blueprint.
The Syrian war, which began as a pro-democracy revolt in 2011 but morphed into a multi-front conflict after the regime unleashed a crackdown, has killed more than 290,000 people and forced more than half the population to flee their homes.
Turkey said on Wednesday that it was in favour of a joint operation with the US to oust the IS extremists from their de facto capital of Raqa in northern Syria.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had agreed with Obama to do “what is necessary” to drive IS out of Raqa.
The deputy prime minister of Turkey later said that talks were underway between the two countries’ militaries.