John Kerry

Western countries have blamed Russian airstrikes in favor of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime forces for a halt to United Nations-brokered Syria peace talks in Geneva.

The US and France have accused President Bashar al-Assad's regime of undermining talks to end Syria's civil war, which were suspended hours before donors were due to meet on Feb. 4 to raise aid for the conflict-torn country.

Russia will not stop its air strikes on Syria until armed groups, such as al-Qaeda's wing there, are defeated, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Feb. 3. 

On Feb. 2, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Russia should stop bombing opposition forces in Syria now that U.N.-led peace talks have started. 

An international coalition is pushing back the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in their Syrian and Iraqi strongholds but the group is threatening Libya and could seize the nation's oil wealth, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Feb. 2. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu has resumed regular contact with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State John Kerry, as Syrian peace talks gained some momentum with the U.N. special envoy formally declaring the start of indirect negotiations.

United States Secretary of State John Kerry stressed that a country without a free and independent press had neither anything to brag about nor the capacity to fulfill its potential. 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed on Jan. 27 on the need for a significant new U.N. Security resolution targeting North Korea after its Jan. 6 nuclear test, though there were few signs of concrete progress.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has strongly reiterated his government's categorical objection to the participation of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) taking part in U.N.-backed talks planned for later this week seeking a political solution to the Syrian crisis, while also making clear their objection was not aimed at excluding Syrian Kurds entirely from the negotiations.

It is impossible to reach a peace agreement in Syria without inviting Kurds to take part in the negotiating process, as it would be "unfair" and "counter-productive," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Jan. 26.

Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations' special envoy for Syria, said on Jan. 25 that the conference on Syria's future, which had been planned for Jan. 25 but failed to go ahead, could meet on Jan. 29. He was speaking after a telephone conversation earlier in the day between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.