SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The U.S., Russia and more than a dozen other countries have held seven hours of talks in Syria in Vienna, but neither the Syrian government or Syrian opposition were in those talks. NPR's Peter Kenyon joins us from Vienna. Peter, thanks so much for being with us.
PETER KENYON, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.
SIMON: And I gather there was some kind of an agreement that came out of this, wasn't there?
KENYON: There was a joint statement of principles they all agree on, and that is some feat because these countries have very, very different agendas. But essentially, what they can agree on is that they're going to keep fighting the Islamic State, ISIS, and they're going to pursue a political process at the same time. They are going to have the U.N. decide where and when it might be possible to have a cease-fire. And then eventually, this political process will include getting the Syrian government and the opposition together and then building a new constitution and possibly holding elections.
SIMON: How did the diplomats explain that they were talking about Syria with no actual Syrians there?
KENYON: That was a question that a lot of people have been asking them, and Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy, took a stab at answering it today. He said he has met with more than 200 Syrian groups and the government, and they all had the same point, he said. They can't sit down and agree until the outside world - the regional players, the big powers, and the U.N. Security Council - all come together and reconcile their different agendas with some common understandings. So that is the process that has started today. Whether that can actually be accomplished is a pretty tricky question.
SIMON: And help us understand how the table has divided in reality, if not literally, who's there to support, for example, the Syrian regime.
KENYON: Well, that's Russia and Iran. They lead the group that's favoring President Bashar al-Assad. Iran was at the talks for the first time this week. They've invested lots of money, both countries, in keeping the Assad regime afloat. And they really want the world to see that he's got a role to play. The question is just how long a role it will be. They're hinting it might be six months. It might not be forever. But that question is going to become very tricky further down the road.
SIMON: United States has just, of course, committed a small group of special operation troops on the ground to fight against ISIS. But the U.S. and other Western states are opposed to the Assad regime.
KENYON: Yes, the Americans, most of the EU countries, the Turks, and certainly the Gulf Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, all want Assad to go. And this decision to step up the fight on the ground at the same time this political process is going on is certainly going to exacerbate some tensions. And whether that can have the desired effect, which is to convince people that this is getting so bad that we'd better go for this political process, remains to be seen.
SIMON: NPR's Peter Kenyon in Vienna, thanks so much for being with us.
KENYON: Thanks, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.