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 Washington has long resisted working more closely with Russia, or
inviting it to be part of an international coalition of 61 countries
trying to defeat Islamic State militants, until Moscow shows that
its air strikes in Syria are not aimed at insurgent forces fighting
Assad.
Kerry met Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed
al-Nahayan on Monday and later held talks with Saudi Foreign
Minister Adel al-Jubeir on ways to bring Syrian opposition groups
together at a conference in Riyadh next month. United Arab Emirates
Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed joined the meeting with
al-Jubeir.
Although Kerry said Washington was not under pressure to work more
closely with Moscow, such cooperation would be possible under the
right circumstances and could lead to "constructive possibilities".
But he told journalists that it was wrong to see any of Washington's
moves as helping keep Assad in power.
 "If certain entities perceive that whatever we're doing is going to
help Assad to stay, that complicates issues," he said. "So it has to
be done in a way that manages the passions ... among people who have
been fighting Assad for four years".
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and the five permanent members of the
U.N. Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia
and China - met earlier this month in Vienna, where they agreed
plans to launch formal talks between Assad's government and its
opponents by Jan. 1.
Divisions among Syrian opposition factions, some backed by the West
and others by Gulf Arab states, are often cited as one of many
obstacles facing diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states have long been
major backers of the insurgency against Assad, whom they say must
leave power.
Assad has been supported militarily by Iran and Russia, which has
carried out eight weeks of air strikes in Syria.
A Kremlin spokesman was quoted by Russia's RIA news agency as saying
President Vladimir Putin and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei said at a meeting on Monday that outside powers should not
impose their political will on Syria. VERBAL INVITATION
Khaled Khoja, president of the Syrian National Coalition told a news
conference in Istanbul on Monday that his organization had received
a "verbal invitation" from Saudi Arabia to take part in the
opposition conference next month.
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"We hope that we emerge from the conference ... with a result that
speeds up a political solution," he said in televised remarks,
adding that the group welcomed Riyadh's initiative and would work to
make it a success.
He also reiterated the opposition stance that there could be no
peaceful solution in Syria without the removal of Assad.
The Syrian conflict began in 2011 with protests against four decades
of Assad family rule. About a quarter of a million people have been
killed and 11 million - half the total population - have been driven
from their homes.
Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled to Europe in the past
few months, which has led to increased efforts by Washington and
other countries to find a political solution to end the war.
Kerry spoke as Brussels remained locked down with Belgian police
making more arrests and continuing the hunt for the prime suspect of
the Nov. 13 Paris attacks who was seen crossing over into Belgium.
Referring to the Paris attacks, Kerry called for accelerated
measures against Islamic State militants and said he would discuss
ideas to that end with his counterparts in Abu Dhabi.
"They discussed ways in which efforts to defeat Daesh can and will
intensify across all lines of coalition efforts and asserted the
need to explore more support from the international partners to that
end," State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
(Additional reporting by Sylvia Westall in Beirut, editing by Sami
Aboudi, Dominic Evans and Alistair Bell)
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