Syria political talks ‘accelerate’ with truce

PARIS (AP) – The Latest on Syria’s conflict (all times local):
2 p.m.
France’s president says discussions about a political transition in Syria will “accelerate” with the cease-fire that has held for a week across the war-wracked country.
Francois Hollande, after speaking with the leaders of Russia, Germany, Britain and Italy, said on Friday that there was agreement to take advantage of the truce to coordinate humanitarian aid and open a process of political transition in Syria.
He did not offer a deadline or precisions.
High-level international discussions about Syria have intensified since the nearly week-old cease-fire went into effect, although it does not include fighters from the Islamic State group.
British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond, also in Paris, said the hope is that ultimately a cease-fire would allow Syria’s moderate opposition and backers of the Assad government to work out a solution and fight the extremists together.
1:50 p.m.
Denmark says it will redeploy F-16 fighter jets to the international coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
Denmark joined the mission in October 2014. In August last year, it temporarily pulled back the four operational F-16 fighter jets and three reserve jets to repair them and allow the staff to recover. Instead, they sent a mobile radar unit.
After a meeting Friday with Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said the country will send 400 people including air force personnel but also members of a special operations unit.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the jets will be redeployed. Parliament will vote to approve the mission in April.
Loekke Rasmussen said the alliance must fight with great force the Islamic State group “that unscrupulously terrorizes and kills innocent men, women and children.”
11:20 a.m.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has met with the U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Tefft to discuss the nearly week-old cease-fire in Syria.
The Russian foreign ministry wrote in an online statement that Bodganov and Tefft met on Thursday evening at Tefft’s invitation to discuss a range of issues relating to the U.S.-Russian brokered cease-fire. The ministry did not elaborate on the officials’ conversation.
On Thursday, Bogdanov also met with a Syrian opposition leader, Qadri Jamil, to discuss resuming Syrian peace talks at the United Nations in the near future.
Previously, the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said he hopes peace talks will resume in early March.