Progress at Vienna peace talks despite failure to set new date for Syria negotiations

The world's major power foreign ministers and leaders of the 17-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG) met again on Tuesday, May 17 in Vienna to renew calls for the cessation of hostilities in Syria, but failed to set a date for the next round of peace talks to be held in Geneva.

"All the parties ... have agreed on a basic framework which is a united, non-sectarian Syria that is able to choose its future through a transitional governing body," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said during the news conference, as reported by Al-Jazeera. "The challenge we face now is to transform these possibilities into the reality of an agreement."

One of the concrete steps taken by the ISSG was acknowledging the fact that government forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are denying access to food and medicine aid around Damascus while blocking the rebel-held areas. The ISSG warned that if the government continues to deny humanitarian access, they will immediately direct the United Nation's World Food Programme to air drop food, medicine, and water to the besieged communities starting June 1.

While Kerry claimed progress in the recent meeting, the parties have failed to set a date for the next round of peace talks.

"We want to keep the momentum. The exact date, I am not at the moment revealing it because it will depend also on other facts," United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura said, according to Reuters. He also noted the upcoming month-long celebration of Ramadan in June.

One challenge that remains to be resolved by the ISSG is the disagreement between key players over an agreed course on what Kerry referred to as a transitional governing body to take over Syria supposedly on August 1. The U.S. maintains that Al-Assad should have already stepped out by then while the Syrian strongman shows no signs of leaving as he's backed by Russian and Iran forces on the ground. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov both chaired Tuesday's meeting.

Another challenge was presented by the main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) as they demanded conditions of full ceasefire and access to humanitarian aid for them to attend the Geneva negotiations.

"We cannot be bombed while we're talking about a peaceful arrangement and a peaceful transition," Bassama Kodami, HNC member, told Reuters.