Kerry implores Syrian opposition to attend peace talks

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A wounded Syrian woman walks with her children after airstrikes on a rebel area of the war-torn northern city of Aleppo. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Mourners attend a funeral for men killed during battles with members of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (Mahmud Al-Halabi / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters carry a man’s body at the Aleppo headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria after he was allegedly killed by the AlQaeda-linked group in January. (Medo Halab / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A Syrian man helps an injured resident following an airstrike in Aleppo’s Maadi neighborhood. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A Syrian man reacts after an airstrike by government forces on the city of Aleppo. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters inside a building during clashes with pro-government forces in the Sheikh al-Said neighborhood of Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. (Medo Halab / AFP/ Getty Images)

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An opposition fighter runs through a hole in a wall to avoid sniper fire by regime forces during clashes in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. (KARAM AL-MASRI / AFP/Getty Images)

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Opposition fighters open fire from behind a car during fighting in the Salaheddin district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fierce fighting in Damascus province between rebels and troops backed by pro-regime militias and fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah. (KARAM AL-MASRI / AFP/Getty Images)

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A Syrian rebel aims his weapon during clashes with government forces in the streets near Aleppo international airport in northern Syria. (Stephen J. Boitano / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters duck as they run behind a barricade to avoid being fired at by Syrian government forces in the Old City of Aleppo. (JM Lopez / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A fighter allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad runs across the street after fighting with rebels in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the capital, Damascus. (Anwar Amro / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A fighter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad, jumps through the window of a destroyed building in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus. (Anwar Amro / AFP/ Getty Images)

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An opposition fighter runs in front of a sniper curtain in the industrial area of Syria’s eastern town of Deir Ezzor during clashes with government forces. (Abo Shuja / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Free Syrian Army fighters clean their weapons and check ammunition at their base on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria. (Khalil Hamra / Associated Press)

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Syrian government forces patrol the Khaldiyeh district of Syria’s central city of Homs. The Syrian government announced on July 29 the capture of Khaldiyeh, a key rebel district in Homs. (Joseph Eid / AFP/Getty Images)

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A Syrian national flag is waved in Damascus to show support for President Bashar Assad. (Louai Beshara / AFP/Getty Images)

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A rebel fighter takes aim at regime forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (Louai Abo Al-Jod / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man stands near destroyed buildings after reported airstrikes by Syrian government forces in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. (Abu Amar Al-Taftanaz / AFP/Getty Images)

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Mustafa Abu Bekir, 23, second from left, meets relatives after crossing the Turkish Cilvegozu gate border. Abu Bekir said he was severely wounded by a bomb dropped from a Syrian army warplane while fighting with the Free Syrian Army in Idlib. (Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press)

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A man carries a boy who was severely wounded during heavy fighting between Syrian rebels and troops last year in Idlib. (Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press)

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Syrian President Bashar Assad arrives at a dinner event in Damascus on the last week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (Virginie Nguyen Hoang / AFP/Getty Images)

By Paul Richter and Patrick J. McDonnell

Jan. 16, 2014 4:57 PM PT

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John F. Kerry pleaded Thursday with Syrian opposition groups to not drop out of a peace conference scheduled to convene in Switzerland next week.

With an umbrella group of opposition forces preparing to vote Friday on whether to attend, Kerry said at an impromptu news conference at the State Department that the Syrian government wouldn’t be able to impose new leadership that is against the wishes of the opposition.

He also rejected claims by the government of President Bashar Assad that the goal of the talks, set to begin Jan. 22 in Montreux, is to forge an international agreement to eliminate the rebels. The contention, made in a letter conveying the government’s decision to attend the gathering, was “revisionism,” Kerry said.

The talks have had the stated goal of beginning the process of setting up a new government for the country, which has been engaged in civil war for nearly three years.

“Any figure [who] is deemed unacceptable by either side — whether Assad or a member of the opposition — cannot be part of the future,” Kerry said.

He urged the Syrian National Coalition, the main U.S.-backed opposition group, to vote to join the conference, saying the venue offers the best opportunity to find “a political solution for this conflict that has taken many, many, many — too many — lives.”

Kerry added that the talks had goals other than establishing a new government, including localized cease-fire agreements, greater access for humanitarian workers and the release of prisoners. He said he was working with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to help persuade Syrian government forces to stop “playing games” that obstruct aid workers’ efforts to reach victims.

Kerry’s impassioned plea appeared to reflect anxiety that the conference — a central goal of U.S. diplomacy efforts since plans for a transitional government for Syria were hammered out in Geneva in 2012 — could unravel.

It remained unclear how the splintered opposition coalition would vote Friday.

The National Coordination Body, an internal opposition group that has tense relations with the coalition, said Thursday that it would not attend the so-called Geneva II negotiations.

Meanwhile, some rebel groups in Syria have denounced participation in the talks as a sellout that will prolong Assad’s rule.

There has also been jockeying over whether Iran, a key backer of Assad’s government, can take part. U.S. officials say Tehran should not be represented at the talks, which will include 35 countries and the United Nations, because it has not agreed to the goal of forming a new Syrian government.

Lavrov met Thursday in Moscow with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif. Lavrov said that “Iran should certainly be involved” in the talks.

Zarif also met with President Vladimir Putin, and the influential Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted an unidentified government source as saying that Russia, a major oil exporter, was interested in striking a deal to purchase Iranian oil. Putin said in televised remarks that Russia and Iran have “a big bilateral agenda.”

Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded early Thursday in the center of the northeastern Lebanese city of Hermel, close to the border with Syria, killing five people and injuring dozens, authorities said.

The blast was the latest in a series of attacks in Lebanon that appear to be linked to the war in Syria. Authorities described all of the victims as civilians who were in the town’s center as the workday was beginning.

Hermel is a mostly Shiite Muslim city whose residents are closely allied with the Hezbollah movement, which has dispatched militiamen to Syria to fight on Assad’s behalf. Some of the militant Sunni Muslim groups battling to topple Assad have vowed to take their fight to Hezbollah’s Lebanese homeland.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. News reports suggested that a suicide bomber was involved.

paul.richter@latimes.com

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Richter reported from Washington and McDonnell from Beirut. Times staff writer Sergei L. Loiko in Moscow contributed to this report.