Russia, US, KSA, Turkey to Hold Syria Talks Thursday
Local Editor
The top diplomats from Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Turkey will hold a second round of Syria talks in less than a week in Vienna Thursday, a Russian diplomatic source said Wednesday.
Following the four-way meeting at 1800 GMT Thursday the quartet could be joined for more talks Friday by their counterparts from Iran, Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon "if these countries reply positively" to an invitation from Washington, the source said.
The US said Tuesday that it expected a "genuine multilateral invitation" to be made to Iran, to join the talks, despite earlier opposition from Washington and Riyadh.
US officials would not say which power would pass the invitation to Tehran and did not know if Iran would accept, but they said it would be welcome to attend if it did.
Friday's talks in Vienna are seen as a way to end the Syrian crisis by creating an interim unity regime.
A meeting last Friday in the Austrian capital between the top envoys from the four countries ended without a major breakthrough, as serious divisions remain over the presence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the head of the state.
In a telephone conversation Tuesday, President Barack Obama and Saudi King Salman spoke about cooperating closely to fight the ISIS and "establish the conditions for a political transition in Syria," according to a White House statement. They vowed to build on recent diplomatic efforts. The statement didn't mention anything about Iran.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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