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Syria talks involving US to take place this weekend, says Lavrov
Source: The Guardian
Syria talks involving US to take place this weekend, says Lavrov
Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger
Wednesday 12 October 2016 22.20 BST
An unexpected round of multilateral talks on the future of Syria is to start on Saturday involving initially Russia, the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and possibly Qatar, the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said. The talks will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Lavrov told CNN he hoped that a meeting involving only those “with direct influence on the ground” in Syria would allow “a businesslike discussion, not another general assembly like debate”. It was not immediately clear whether Iran would be represented.
The UK, France and other European states will be excluded from the Lausanne meeting, but the US secretary of state, John Kerry, is expected to brief European foreign ministers in London afterwards.
Kerry announced he was ending bilateral contacts with Russia after a US-Russia brokered ceasefire broke down after less than a week, when the Syrian regime declared it over and resumed a Russian-backed air offensive against rebel-held eastern Aleppo. However, the state department said at the time that multilateral meetings on Syria would continue, including Russia.
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Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger
Wednesday 12 October 2016 22.20 BST
An unexpected round of multilateral talks on the future of Syria is to start on Saturday involving initially Russia, the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and possibly Qatar, the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said. The talks will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Lavrov told CNN he hoped that a meeting involving only those “with direct influence on the ground” in Syria would allow “a businesslike discussion, not another general assembly like debate”. It was not immediately clear whether Iran would be represented.
The UK, France and other European states will be excluded from the Lausanne meeting, but the US secretary of state, John Kerry, is expected to brief European foreign ministers in London afterwards.
Kerry announced he was ending bilateral contacts with Russia after a US-Russia brokered ceasefire broke down after less than a week, when the Syrian regime declared it over and resumed a Russian-backed air offensive against rebel-held eastern Aleppo. However, the state department said at the time that multilateral meetings on Syria would continue, including Russia.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/12/unexpected-talks-syria-moscow-switzerland-us-russia-airstrikes-aleppo
