‘Kerry wants to test Russian willingness to nudge Assad out’

US secretary of state John Kerry will meet his Ir-anian counterpart in Vien-na on Thursday ahead of a fresh round of talks on ending the Syrian conflict, a senior state department official said.

Tehran will join the talks on Friday in what will be the first time it has participated in international neg-otiations aimed at resolving the bloodshed as key nations backing Syria’s wa-rring sides seek to thrash out differences over the future of President Bashar al-Assad.

The inclusion of Iran, a key Assad backer, marks a crucial shift after it was excluded from earlier talks, largely due to Opposition from the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was also to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Thursday, according to the Russian news wire Interfax.

The talks come in the context of two days of diplomatic efforts involving all the major international players in the same room for the first time.

On Thursday evening, Russia, which backs Mr Assad, will hold talks with the US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, all of whom back rebels seeking to overthrow the Syrian leader. It will be the second time in less than a week that the four envoys have met on Syria.

But Friday’s talks will be a wider gathering of regio-nal players which will see Zarif joining representatives from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Lebanon and the European Union.

So far there has been no mention of either the Syrian government or the Opposition joining.

Meanwhile, a top US official said on Thursday that the United States aims to test Russia and Iran’s willingness to push Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to leave power and their commitment to fighting ISIS militants in Syria.

The official, state department counsellor Tom Shannon, was responding to a legislator’s question on why US secretary of state John Kerry was meeting with a wide array of nations, including Assad-supporters Russia and Iran, in Vienna this week.

Mr Shannon said the Russian bombing campaign in Syria had changed circumstances and had provided an opportunity to gauge whether the Russians would be willing to try to convince Mr Assad that he must eventually leave power.