Kerry, Lavrov to Meet on Syria Next Week

Local Editor

The UN announced that Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, and his US counterpart , John Kerry, will meet next week to discuss the developments of the crisis in Syria.

AFP quoted the UN as saying in a statement following talks held in Geneva between Russian and US diplomats in preparations for holding the international conference on Syria that the officials who held this meeting were informed that Lavrov and Kerry will meet next week.

The statement added that the talks were constructive and focused on ways to ensure holding the Geneva conference on Syria with best opportunities for success.
It was the second meeting this month between UN peace envoy to Syria al-Akhdar Ibrahimi, Russian Deputy Foreign Ministers Gennady Gatilov, and Mikhail Bogdanov and US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman.

The so-called Geneva 2 conference, which is meant to follow up on an initial meeting in the Swiss city last year that produced a never-implemented transition plan for Syria, had initially been penciled in for this month, then July.
But before Tuesday's session started, Ibrahimi told reporters the Geneva 2 conference probably would not happen in July either.

Afterwards the UN announced the Lavrov and Kerry meeting next week and added that "further consultations among the United Nations, the Russian Federation and the United States would take place thereafter on the date of the conference and to complete the list of participants."

In the same context, Gatilov, said that no agreement has been reached so far on the date of the international conference on Syria, stressing that the issue of Iran's participation in this conference is important for solving the crisis.
Russia Today website quoted Gatilov as saying, "We agreed on several issues, particularly the framework of the conference; other issues are still under discussions."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team