Delay of 2-3 Days in January Syrian Peace Talks ‘Not End of World’ - DOS

A two-three day postponement in the Syrian peace talks expected to take place on January 25 is not critical, US State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner told reporters.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry met in Zurich where they agreed that the Syrian peace talks should not be postponed beyond January.

"Deadlines matter, but that said if it slips one or two days, you know, it’s not the end of the world either," Toner said on Wednesday. "We recognize that this is a difficult process. It has been a difficult process, it will continue to be a difficult process going forward, but we have to keep the pressure on, and we have to keep moving forward."

Russian Permanent Envoy to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said on Tuesday that holding the talks in January was still in doubt, since the sides to the conflict could not agree on the list of participants in the talks.

During the last round of the international negotiations on the Syrian settlement on December 18, 2015, the sides failed to reach consensus on what groups within Syria should be designated as terrorist and banned from the Geneva conference, where opposition representatives will meet with Syrian authorities.

Several groups of Syrian external opposition met in the Saudi capital Riyadh in early December 2015, despite protests from the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad. They formed a council that hoped to handpick delegates to represent the opposition at the upcoming talks with government representatives.