Russia, the United States and the United Nations will hold three-way talks on the Syria crisis in Geneva on Friday, the UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Wednesday.
Russia, the United States and the United Nations will hold three-way talks on the Syria crisis in Geneva on Friday, the UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Wednesday.
News of the meeting was first reported by Russia’s RIA news agency, citing Russian deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov.
“We will present our vision of the situation (in Syria), with emphasis on the need to intensify the fight against terrorism. It is a priority for us. We call for an increase in joint efforts in this area,” Mr Gatilov said.
Neither US secretary of state John Kerry nor Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who meet in Moscow next week, will attend the Geneva meeting.
Their contacts over Syria were key to holding two international meetings in Vienna in October and November, where countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, backed a plan for Mr De Mistura to oversee talks between the Syrian government and Opposition in Geneva in January.
Mr De Mistura said Friday’s Geneva talks were part of preparatory work. He declined to go into detail about the talks, which he initiated.
“It’s to talk about how to better organise the future Vienna meetings,” he said.
The next “Vienna” meeting is in fact most likely to be in New York later in December.
