Syria talks in Vienna go forward, overshadowed by Paris attacks

VIENNA, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A meeting between 20 countries to discuss the crisis in Syria went forward Saturday under the pall of the deadly attacks on Paris that left nearly 130 dead.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius were among the many to meet at a Vienna hotel to discuss a path to a resolution to the years-long civil war in Syria. Fabius said "it is more necessary than ever in the current circumstance to coordinate the international fight against terrorism." Early Saturday, French President Francois Hollande blamed the Islamic State militant group for the attack and vowed retaliation.

"One of the topics of the meeting today in Vienna is precisely to see concretely how we can reinforce international coordination in the fight" against the IS groups that have moved across Syria and Iraq.

At #SyriaTalksVienna. Most countries around table experience terrorist attacks: best answer is uniting & delivering pic.twitter.com/dilCtEA6Un

— Federica Mogherini (@FedericaMog) November 14, 2015

Fabius said he will return to Paris after the talks and stand in on Sunday for Hollande at the two-day Group of 20 Summit in Turkey, where President Obama and Kerry will be in attendance.

In a joint statement, Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov decried the Paris attacks. Kerry said, "we are in absolute and total agreement that these kinds of attacks are the most vile, horrendous, outrageous, unacceptable acts on the planet; that under any category – we don't know who did it, but they are acts of terror."

"I think we have to strongly reiterate that there will be no tolerance vis-a-vis terrorists," Lavrov said. "There will be no justification for us not doing much more to defeat ISIL, al-Nusrah, and the like. And I hope that this meeting as well would allow us to move forward." The IS is also known as ISIL, ISIS and Daesh. Jabhat al-Nusra is al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the attacks on Paris have pushed the global effort to end the Syrian war and reinforce the resolve to come together.

"It's another sad day and the meeting we are having in Vienna today is taking another kind of meaning. The countries sitting around the table have almost all experienced the same pain, the same terror, the same shock over the last weeks," she said, referring to attacks on Paris, Lebanon, Russia, Egypt, Turkey.

Secretary @JohnKerry expresses condolences to FM @LaurentFabius over #ParisAttacks before Vienna meeting on #Syria pic.twitter.com/Jmo31XCMa0

— Department of State (@StateDept) November 14, 2015