Efforts are under way in Munich to agree a cessation of hostilities and encourage urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged areas all over Syria. A crunch meeting of countries trying to find an end to the conflict followed a stark warning from Russia that wider military intervention could spark “a new world war”.

Dimitry Medvedev, Russia’s prime minister, was quoted telling Germany’s Handelsblatt daily: “The Americans and our Arab partners must think hard about this – do they want a permanent war? All sides must be forced to the negotiating table instead of sparking a new world war.”

Medvedev was apparently responding to suggestions that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states might join the US-led campaign against Islamic State in Syria.

However, the US accused Russia of worsening the brutal conflict with its military action in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

“It has been Russian support for the Assad regime over the past months, and most recently in the siege on Aleppo, that has exacerbated, intensified the conflict,” state department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told reporters. In response to a question about Medvedev’s “world war” warning, Toner said: “If that is Russia’s concern, then they should look at what they’re doing to support the Assad regime.”

Earlier, the US defence secretary, Ashton Carter, tentatively welcomed the prospect of ground troops from Saudi Arabia, though in a modest role providing special forces or helping to train local forces, rather than the full-scale Islamic coalition to fight Isis, previously hinted at by Riyadh.

Meanwhile, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, and Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, met in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, on Thursday to try to forge a consensus on the way ahead.

Kerry said that he had “made clear the need for immediate progress on humanitarian access [and a] ceasefire in Syria”. Lavrov said Moscow had made a “quite specific” ceasefire proposal but would await the American response.

The 17-member International Syria Support Group (ISSG) comprises supporters and opponents of Assad. Diplomats said discussions focused on a plan for halting fighting across Syria, though that fell short of a formal ceasefire, which, crucially, would require monitoring and verification. It was unclear how long any cessation might last.

Speaking before the ISSG session began, Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said: “We need somewhat of a breakthrough. We will try what has not been achieved so far, especially to get better supplies to people locked in Syria and to link this to first steps in a significant reduction of violence.”



The EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, called it a “very important meeting” where she would be pushing for an immediate ceasefire.

Key questions remain over whether and when the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will end the airstrikes, which he says are aimed at Isis and other terrorists but which appear to be hitting mainstream rebel groups fighting Assad, as well as civilians. Any cessation of hostilities would exclude Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, both proscribed by the UN.



“What Putin is doing today is not only harming Syria and its people, but also endangering international peace and security,” said Riyadh Hijab, head of the anti-Assad opposition’s negotiations committee. “Stopping aerial strikes are not a precondition for peace negotiations, but the right of the Syrian people, and their duty according to international law.”

French President Francois Hollande also called for Russia to halt its military action in support of Assad.

“We need to ensure that Bashar al-Assad leaves power and at the moment, helped by the Russians, he is massacring some of his own people, even if he is also taking action against a certain number of terrorists,” Hollande said, adding: “I ask that Russia’s actions stop.”

The UN is ready to send aid convoys into 19 besieged areas but would have to prioritise according to need, sources said. Madaya, where civilians have starved to death, would be at the top of the list. The UN would help with dropping supplies into Deir ez-Zor, which is under siege by Isis and inaccessible by road.

Key elements of an agreement were being thrashed out in Munich with a view to agreeing a detailed statement later on Thursday. The focus on ending fighting and delivering aid was designed to ensure that UN-brokered peace talks, suspended last week, could resume in Geneva this month.



Syrian rebels have made clear they will not take part without real improvements for their people on the ground. But there was still no sign of movement on the tough question of Syria’s political future and Assad’s place in it. The opposition fears a convergence of US and Russian agendas to end the war.

The US, Britain and other western governments are trying to test whether Russia is sincere about its professed wish to de-escalate the conflict. The first hurdle is for Lavrov to win the argument in Moscow, diplomats said, and then for Moscow to persuade the Syrian government to go along with the plan.



The Russian prime minister, Dimitry Medvedev, said: ‘The Americans and our Arab partners must think hard about this – do they want a permanent war?’ Photograph: Yekaterina Shtukina/Tass

The latest efforts to end the war date back to October in the wake of Russia’s military intervention. Two conferences in Vienna and a UN resolution set out a timetable for peace talks, a new constitution and elections in Syria. The novelty of the ISSG format was to bring both Iran and Saudi Arabia to the table for the first time.

However, Syria observers remain sceptical that a genuine breakthrough will be achieved in Munich, or, if proclaimed, if it will be implemented.

“The key question is whether the [Assad] regime will deliver land access to besieged areas,” said one diplomat. “That remains in the regime’s, not Russian, hands. The proof will be in the doing. If the Russians stop blowing up civilians and we see movement on access it might open the way to a resumption of talks in Geneva – on a comprehensive ceasefire and and a political transition in parallel.

“But the regime will likely make positive noises and then stop anything happening. The problem is that a Kerry-Lavrov agreement doesn’t involve any of the actors on the ground. We need the Syrians on board.”

In Brussels, Carter also said Nato was offering to join the fight against Islamic State and laid out a “concrete” US plan to accelerate the campaign to retake Mosul, Isis’s stronghold in Iraq, captured in September 2014. He suggested that countries not answering his call to do more against Isis might regret their choices. “We will all look back after victory and remember who participated in the fight,” he said.

The US defence secretary added that he had discussed the ground troop offer with the Saudi defence minister and deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who was at the meeting.

Although the US has in the past called for Saudi contributions to ground troops and has said in the last few days that the missing gap in the coalition plans was ground troops, it fears the prospect of Saudi Arabia joining the already volatile mix of forces in Syria.



A Saudi defence spokesman, Brig Gen Ahmed Asiri, showed no sign of backing away from the idea that it was “an irreversible decision”. He said the force could be operational by March or April. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries offering troops were establishing a headquarters, he said, and Saudi’s position, he said, was to commit ground troops because “today we know there is no one fighting Daesh [Isis] in Syria”.

But he did add the caveat that his country would send troops to Syria only if there were a consensus in the coalition. The US was resisting sending a large American ground force to Syria. Asked how many troops Saudi would commit, Asiri said these were decisions to be made by military staff in the coming weeks. “It is too early to speak about numbers or the kind of force,” he said.

Carter’s mention of Saudi special forces held out the prospect that they could work alongside the 50-strong US special forces units deployed to eastern Syria in December to coordinate attacks on Raqqa, the stronghold of Isis.

As well as Saudi Arabia, countries at the meeting included Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Countries’ leaders promised a range of contributions, ranging from an increase in airstrikes, to helping train local forces and police, and disrupting the financing of Isis.