A Syrian man walks amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike by Syrian government forces in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus.

Reuters
Vienna

Success at multilateral talks on Syria, which bring regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia face-to-face, might be measured by just keeping participants at the conference table, diplomats said yesterday, playing down expectations of any breakthrough.
More than a dozen powers are heading to Vienna for a fresh 2-day effort to end Syria’s four-year civil war in which the US and its Western and Gulf allies are at odds with Russia and its regional supporters, including Iran.
US Secretary of State John Kerry was scheduled to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif, attending high-level talks on Syria for the first time, late yesterday, US officials said.
Kerry said on Wednesday that Washington was stepping up its diplomacy to end the Syrian conflict, even as it increases support for moderate rebels fighting Islamic State militants.
Kerry was also likely to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the foreign ministers of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, diplomats close to the talks said.
The talks in Vienna will be the first time Iran and Saudia Arabia, regional arch rivals who have been deeply critical of each other’s role in the crisis, have met across the table since the conflict erupted in Syria in March 2011.
Tehran, like Moscow, is a staunch backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their Western and Gulf allies oppose.
But potentially signalling a willingness to compromise, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian was quoted by Iranian media as saying: “Iran does not insist on keeping Assad in power forever.”
US officials are playing down expectations of any major breakthrough and a senior Western diplomat said just keeping the players at the conference table and avoiding a collapse of the talks would represent a level of modest success.
Divisions between Moscow and the West over Syria have deepened since Russia began bombing opposition fighters last month and US officials see the talks more as a chance to narrow differences in pursuit of an elusive political resolution.
“I wouldn’t expect too much,” a senior Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity. “But the Americans are putting a lot of diplomacy into this and Kerry is his usual sort of upbeat self ... He sort of generates momentum by just being positive.”
Neither Syria’s main political opposition body, which has objected to Iran’s participation, nor representatives of the armed opposition were invited to the meeting, an opposition politician and a rebel leader said.
Assad’s government has yet to comment on the talks.
After talks with his Russian, Turkish and Saudi counterparts in Vienna last week, Kerry said ideas had been raised that he hoped had “a possibility of ultimately changing the dynamic”.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the main goal of the latest Vienna talks was to launch a political dialogue on Syria.
“The ideal outcome of the Vienna meeting would be a roadmap or a communique to move ahead,” a second senior Western diplomat said. “We will not have a peace plan ready to be implemented (on Friday).”
The White House said on Wednesday that the peace talks could only work if “all key stakeholders” were invited, adding that Iran’s participation should not overshadow efforts to end the Syrian crisis.
Russia has called for elections in Syria, though Assad has said that fighting “terrorism” must take priority. Assad’s government describes all groups opposing him as terrorists.