U.S., France say Syrian govt trying to spoil peace talks

PARIS, March 13: The United States and France said on Sunday that comments by Syrian government officials ahead of a new round of peace talks were a provocation and Russia and Iran would need to show the Syrian government was “living up to” what had been agreed.The Syrian government said on Saturday that it would not discuss presidential elections at peace talks in Geneva this week or hold talks with any party wishing to discuss the question of the presidency.”It’s a provocation … a bad sign and doesn’t correspond to the spirit of the ceasefire,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told a news conference with his British, German, Italian, U.S. and EU counterparts.
U.S. Secretary of State said the Syrian government and its backers were mistaken if they thought they could continue to test the boundaries of a fragile truce. Accusing Syria of carrying out the most violations of the truce, Kerry said Russian President Vladimir Putin needed to look at how Assad was acting.
“President Assad is singing on a completely different song sheet and sent his foreign minister out yesterday to try to act as a spoiler and take off the table what President Putin and the Iranians have agreed to,” Kerry said.
Meanwhile, after talks with European allies in Paris, John Kerry said that 600 fighters from the Islamic State group had been killed in Syria in the last three weeks.
“In Syria, over the last three weeks alone, Daesh has lost 3,000 square kilometres (1,160 square miles) and 600 fighters,” he said.-Agencies