Saudi Arabia to continue support Syrian rebels if Assad does not leave

The decision to act was swift, and the outcome, although impressive, remains filled with loopholes.

Zarif held a meeting with Kerry in Austria on Saturday night after conclusion of a round of multilateral talks on the crisis in Syria.

Fighting Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi and his men was officially prioritised by the global community, more so than toppling the regime of President Bashar Al Assad. Syrian rebel factions are divided on the future of the country post Assad. The Vienna talks, however, made the two tracks parallel.

But Assad's opponents blame him for fuelling Islamist militancy with his war against the rebels in which hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed.

"I met worldwide diplomats and attended so many conference as a member of the opposition", he said. The Syrian government has already named its representatives to the upcoming talks, drafting a delegation that will likely be headed by Foreign Minister Waleed Al Mua'alem. It doesn't specify whether the new government would have full executive power - a key demand for those opposed to a role for Assad in the transition - and the agreement hinges on whether Assad would commit to a process that could end his regime. If the deadline is maintained, it would coincide with the next constitutional parliamentary elections in Syria, where all sides will get to run, challenging a Baathist monopoly over the Chamber of Deputies, in place since 1973. By contrast, Syria's mostly moderate opposition continues to suffer from a perceived lack of Western support.

Anas, a Syrian journalist in Idlib province, said the Vienna talks were a joke. Sources in Damascus told Gulf News that the regime has a major problem in relinquishing the portfolios of foreign affairs, interior, defence, education, and finance. That is to be completed by the time the political process between the government and opposition begins in January. The government would supervise the nationwide ceasefire and unite efforts of both the government and opposition in the war on Daesh.

This was largely Russia's proposal, though other nations are disputing Russia's call for free elections, demanding to limit participation from President Assad and other top figures in the existing government.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the countries sitting around the table have "almost all experienced the same pain, the same terror", citing the recent Russian plane disaster in Egypt and suicide bombings in Beirut and Turkey.

Even before Friday's attacks, the G20 agenda was expected to be topped by the search for a solution to the four-year civil war in Syria and to the waves of migration the conflict has unleashed across the Middle East and Mediterranean. It was left hanging, pretty much similar to the fate of Jerusalem at the Oslo Accords of 1993.

"Syrians will not accept [President] Bashar al-Assad for one more day".

Standing next to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ahead of Saturday's full ministerial meeting, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the attacks "the most vile, horrendous, outrageous, unacceptable acts on the planet".

"ISIS has really been tapping into this and playing it up, saying 'with us there are no double standards, ' " Ms. Yahya said.

"Make no mistake that resolve has only grown stronger in the wake of this unspeakable brutality", Kerry said of the attacks in Paris which were claimed by the Daesh terror group operating out of Iraq and Syria.

Asked on BBC1's Andrew Marr Show whether the Paris attacks had changed the mood in Labour over airstrikes in Syria, shadow justice secretary Lord Falconer said: "I think everybody is now thinking that the right thing to do is to take stock".