Obama, Putin discuss Syria as peace talks begin

President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone about the Syrian peace conference on the eve of its Wednesday start, both countries said. "The conversation was businesslike and constructive in manner," the Kremlin said in a statement. The White House didn't characterize the call, which also included other issues, as Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Montreux, Switzerland, on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps, before the talks were to begin. "They discussed the situation in Syria, including preparations for the Geneva II conference and the ongoing international program to remove and destroy Syria's chemical weapons," a statement issued by the White House press secretary's office said. Tight security was in place to protect Kerry, Lavrov and dozens of other Western and Arab foreign ministers meeting at an opulent lakeside hotel. The conference, aimed at ending Syria's nearly 3-year-old civil war, was to begin with a round of addresses by Kerry and his counterparts, including Lavrov. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who Monday was forced to withdraw a last-minute invitation to Iran, is chairing the conference. The talks will then shift to the Palace of Nations in Geneva, on the other side of the lake, where starting Friday a delegation of Syrian opposition officials led by Syrian National Coalition President Ahmad al-Jarba is expected to sit down with an Assad regime team led by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem. These direct negotiations -- the first direct peace talks between the regime and the opposition since Syrian unrest began March 15, 2011 -- are to be conducted in closed-door sessions led by veteran Algerian mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, the special envoy representing the United Nations and the Arab League. Brahimi's predecessor, Kofi Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general, resigned in frustration in August 2012. The official objective of the peace talks, known as Geneva II, is to establish a process to create a transitional government with full executive powers. The transitional government would run the country until elections could be held that likely wouldn't include Assad. This was the objective worked out at an international conference on the Syria conflict, known as Geneva I, held in Geneva in June 2012. Syria has said its intention for the talks is to fight "terrorism." The regime uses that term to describe the armed opposition. Assad has also said he would not step down or share power with the opposition. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters she didn't "want to prejudge" the talks' outcome. "We do know that it's going to be very challenging," she said in a conference call. "Nobody expects that everything will be resolved in the next 24 or 48 hours, but we really do think this is an opportunity to make progress on implementing the different parts and fully implementing the Geneva I communique." Syrian National Reconciliation Affairs Minister Ali Haidar dampened hopes of a breakthrough. "Don't expect anything from Geneva II. Neither Geneva II, not Geneva III nor Geneva X will solve the Syrian crisis," he said Friday. "The solution has begun and will continue through the military triumph of the state," he said.