US Secretary of State John Kerry was trying to build
momentum behind a new drive to end the Syrian civil war Sunday after high-level
talks with Russia and the country's neighbours.
Kerry was due to fly to London to brief Washington's
European allies after "brainstorming" talks in Lausanne with the main
players in Syria's bloody five-year-old conflict.
The Swiss meeting did not produce a concrete plan to restore
the truce that collapsed last month amid bitter recriminations between
Washington and Moscow and new fighting on the ground.
But Kerry insisted the new, leaner contact group had come up
with some plausible ideas that would be fleshed out in the coming days and
might lead to a new, stronger ceasefire.
"The way it wrapped up was to have several ideas that
need to be quickly followed up," he said after talks with Russia, Iran,
Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey.
"The next contact on trying to follow up on this is
going to be immediately, because this is urgent, and we're not letting any
grass grow under our feet."
But he said it was too early to reveal what the ideas were,
and that high-level contacts -- but not a ministerial-level meeting -- would
continue on Monday to develop them.
He was expected, however, to raise the issues with Britain's
Foreign Minister Boris Johnson and senior European colleagues, after flying to
London later on Sunday.
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