secretary of state john kerry is meeting sergei fedorov and russia and the united states disagree whould be at the negotiating table over bringing about an end to a crisis in syria and talks set to take place in geneva on january 25 but now there are serious doubts of whether or not they will go ahead and the scheduled talks are expected to focus on the set up of a transitional government and joining us now with more on this is paul brennan in zurich where the talks are taking place and paul what can we expect today? >> well i think it's going to be difficult for the two men to find common ground on this, the indications are not good and seem to be quite far apart and let me bring the viewers up to speed with where we are with that, resolution 2254 set out a framework for talks and dialog between assad regime and leaderships with a view to political transition and elections in syria by the mid 2017, that is next year. in order to do that you need to get them around the table and the question mark is who is to represent the opposition side of the argument. there was a conference in riy

secretary of state john kerry arrived in zurich to meet sergei fedorov and russia and the united statese on who should be at the negotiating table on bringing about an end to the crisis in syria. the talks were supposed to take place in geneva on january 25th but there are now doubts of whether they will go ahead. the talks expected to focus on the set up of a transitional government. paul brennan has this update now from running parallel to the riyadh group and pulling all the sites together is going to be very difficult indeed and the fact they have not scheduled a statement to be made, they have not informed the press there will be a statement at the end of the talks in the hotel behind me i think is an indication they are not really expecting a conclusive outcome from this and simply hope they may be moving slowly towards progress but no actual breakthrough. >> air base in syria's province is now ready to be used by u.s. war planes after the completion of a runway expansion and syrian observatory says u.s. helicopters began operations from the airport and also be headquarters for fi

warring sides as we said invitations to talks are said to be sent out in the coming hours and sergei fedorov said it's impossible to reach an agreement in syria without inviting kurds to take part in the negotiations. >> translator: the fighters which the u.s. supports and who are fighting i.s.i.l. are trying to prevent them from participating in the syrian talks. this is our common problem. it's not simply unfair and counter productive it's a problem with the u.s., the u.s. believes the kurds are one of its closest allies in the fight against terrorism. i hope the u.s. will not leave this problem unsolved. >> and here is our diplomatic editor james base with more from geneva. >> nearly five years of warfare in syria whenever there has been the prospect of a diplomatic initiative we've seen an increase in the fighting on the ground. we saw it two years ago when last time there were talks here in geneva and i think the reason you're seeing military initiatives right now just days before talks are about to start is because staffan de mistura the u.n. envoy who is going to deal with these talks

and the government says it retook a keytown in deraa providence with help of air strikes and sergei fedorovressed russia's role in syria this morning. >> translator: key direction of our efforts has been moving forward with the initiative of president vladimir putin the creation of a broad antiterrorist coalition. actions by russian airforces have substantially helped to turn around the situation in the country and help control the territory controlled by terrorist forces and we have a clear picture of what is acting and trying to use them in their ogetistic, one sided goals. >> increase in fighting could but because of up coming face and al jazeera james base editor explains. >> reporter: over nearly five years of warfare in syria whenever there has been the prospect of a diplomatic initiative we've seen an increase in the fighting on the ground. we saw it two years ago when last time there were talks here in geneva. and i think the reason you are seeing military initiatives right nowadays before talks are about to start is because staffan de mistura the u.n. envoy who is going to deal wit

ahead of friday's indirect talks on syria and invitations expected to be sent out in hours and sergei fedorovit's impossible to reach an agreement in syria without inviting kurds to take part in the negotiations. >> translator: the fighters which the u.s. supports and who are fighting i.s.i.l. are trying to prevent them from participating in the syrian talks. this is our common problem. >> reporter: it's not simply unfair and counter productive it's a problem with the u.s. the u.s. believes the kurds are one of its closest allies in the fight against terrorism, i hope the u.s. will not leave this problem unsolved. >> reporter: we have james base in geneva where talks are due to begin later this week and disagreement on the role of the kurdish groups and if they should be included in the negotiations and do we know first of all who is going to be invited and who is likely to accept the invasion to talks? >> well, certainly mr. staffan de mistura was pressed specifically on kurdish representation of these talks when he gave a news conference and he didn't answer the question. but i'm hearing th