U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov at a meeting regarding Syria at the Palace Hotel in the Manhattan borough of New York December 18, 2015
© Carlo Allegri / Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov at a meeting regarding Syria at the Palace Hotel in the Manhattan borough of New York December 18, 2015
The five permanent UNSC members have agreed on a draft of a resolution calling for a ceasefire and political settlement in Syria, agencies report, citing diplomat sources. The official vote is expected in the coming hours.

The draft demands that all parties to the Syrian conflict "immediately cease any attacks against civilians," Reuters reports. A mechanism to monitor the truce is to be worked out within a month.

The draft resolution would also ask the UN to convene formal talks on a transitional government. The talks between the regime and opposition are targeted for early January.

Foreign ministers from 18 countries as well as the UN and Arab League representatives gathered in New York Friday to push the Syria roadmap.

Apart from the UN and the Arab League, the group also includes Russia, the US, the EU, the UK, Germany, France, China, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Qatar, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, who have already met twice in Vienna in the last six weeks and drafted a road map for the Syrian conflict reconciliation.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that new calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down were voiced during the conference that preceded the UN Security Council meeting. These calls were framed into the fight with terrorism, he said.

"We confirmed our position that - as the UNSC has repeatedly stressed - there can be no pre-conditions to fight terrorism," Lavrov said adding such calls did not make it into the draft. He once again said it is up to the Syrian to determine the future of their country and its current leader.

Earlier, Jordan, which was tasked with listing terrorist organizations in Syria, presented a document that includes 160 extremist groups, RIA Novosti reported, citing sources in the Russian Foreign Ministry.

"The list reflects positions of different sides," Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judah, who presented the document during the ISSG talks in New York, also said, according to TASS.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution submitted jointly by Russian and the US which allows punishing individuals or companies involved in trade with Islamic State or other terror groups.

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov as well as with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Russia and the US managed to reach an agreement on some "critical" issues concerning Syria in particular. Kerry said that the positions of the US and Russia on Syria are "fundamentally very similar" and expressed readiness to further cooperation.