work,” he said.
Lavrov also praised US President Barack Obama for what he called Washington’s growing realisation that it is IS militants -- and not Assad - who present the most serious threat.
He said he detected a shift in Washington’s perception of the Syria crisis, referring to Obama’s State of the Union address in which he asked lawmakers to give him updated war powers to go after the IS group.
“It’s good that this understanding is growing,” Lavrov said.
US Secretary John Kerry called taming IS “the challenge of our time,” speaking after Islamist attacks in Paris claimed 17 lives this month.
Moscow will see any possible changes to Washington’s Syria policy as a vindication of its view that Islamist extremists are the main threat to regional security.
“In the States they’ve begun to realise the truth of the old adage: ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’,” Vladimir Isayev, a professor at the Institute of the Asian and African Studies at the Moscow State University, told AFP.
He said that compared to the IS, Assad was predictable.
“But what those bashi-bazouks are doing..., they are unpredictable,” he said, using a term for soldiers of the Ottoman army known for their atrocities.
Washington welcomed the Moscow talks but said it would be up to the opposition whether to attend.
“We’ve certainly conveyed we’d support them attending the meetings,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
But the exiled National Coalition and top opposition figure Moaz al-Khatib have announced they will not attend the meeting.
“Any talks should be held in a neutral country and overseen by the United Nations,” a source in the Coalition said.
In Syria, a government source indicated the authorities did not pin too much hope on the Moscow meetings, either, but expressed hope that participants would agree on a roadmap to “fight terrorism”, among other issues.
“You have to start modestly, brick by brick, not agree on an all-encompassing plan which is impossible at this stage.”
Vitaly Naumkin, director of the Institute of Oriental Studies and moderator at the talks, said Moscow had sent out a few dozen invitations.
“A strict principle is, the talks are taking place without pre-conditions,” he told reporters.
But analysts do not expect a breakthrough.
“Without the National Coalition the talks do not make much sense,” said Alexei Malashenko, an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Centre.