AFP, Vienna :World power talks on ending the Syrian conflict close with no clear breakthrough Tuesday as new faction-fighting erupted and the death toll continued to mount.US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov said the Syria contact group they co-chair had agreed to bolster a shaky ceasefire.But underlying disagreements between Washington and Moscow on how to handle the crisis were apparent, and the United Nations failed to name a date for new peace talks.Meanwhile, human rights monitors said fierce new clashes between the rebel Jaish al-Islam and Al-Qaeda-backed factions had left 50 fighters and two civilians dead.United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura said he could not invite Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the Syrian opposition back to peace talks without a “credible” ceasefire.Kerry said the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) had agreed there would be consequences for parties breaching the truce and vowed to maintain pressure on Assad.But Lavrov restated the Russian position that Assad’s army is the best placed local faction to fight the Islamic State “terrorist” group and that Moscow would support it.Divisions between Russia and the United States have hampered efforts to agree a framework under which Syria would “transition” away from Assad’s rule.And Kerry admitted the August 1 date set by the UN Security Council for agreement on the political framework was a “target” not a deadline, apparently softening the US stance.Nevertheless, Kerry said the ISSG had agreed to strengthen its system for monitoring the ceasefire and that violators risked being expelled from the process.Washington regularly accuses Assad’s forces of violating the truce and of bombing civilians, whereas Russia accuses rebel factions of carrying out massacres.”We have agreed consequences for any side’s actions that have an agenda other than that of trying to reach an agreement and trying to reach peace,” said Kerry as he again accused Assad’s forces of deliberately starving besieged areas and said UN humanitarian agencies would be ordered to drop food.
