The United States and Russia came up short on Sunday on a deal to end years of brutal fighting between Syria’s Russian-backed Govern-ment and US-supported rebels.
Negotiations were to continue on Sunday, even as a dispirited President Barack Obama doubted the diplomacy would ever pay off.
Russia and the US have sought for weeks to secure a cease-fire between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s Government and moderate rebels that would expand access for hundreds of thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire.
The strategy has hinged on an unlikely US-Russian militarily partnership against extremist groups operating in Syria.
But beyond the Islamic State and al-Qaida, the two powers have conflicting views about who fits in that category. “We’re not there yet,” Obama said on the sidelines of an economic summit in China, where across town US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey lavrov were trying to hash out the deal.
“It’s premature for us to say that there is a clear path forward, but there is the possibility at least for us to make some progress on that front.”
A senior State Department official said the talks faltered yesterday when Russia pulled back from agreement on issues the US negotiators believed had been settled.
The official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss negotiations publicly and requested anonymity, didn’t elaborate. Kerry and lavrov were