WASHINGTON — Despite US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's saying that they had made progress in 10 hours of talks in Geneva on Aug. 26 and that just a few issues remained to be resolved, it seems increasingly unlikely that the United States and Russia will conclude a deal on Syria before US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in China on Sept. 4, and perhaps at all, diplomatic contacts said.

US-Russian negotiations in Geneva are due to resume Aug. 31, but it “doesn’t look particularly promising,” a diplomat involved in the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al-Monitor. It’s “probably the last chance before Obama and Putin meet on Sunday in China.”

“I think the message to the Russians does have to be that there's a window closing here, and we need to see that they can reach a real agreement and that they can back it up,” deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told journalists at the White House press briefing Aug. 29.

“Even if we are able to get an agreement, that's only going to happen if we are assured that it's going to provide the necessary humanitarian access into Aleppo,” Rhodes continued.