Russia, US to discuss Syria next week

Top Russian and US officials will meet in The Hague next week to discuss preparations for the international peace conference on Syria. That’s according to Russia’s deputy foreign minister.

“This meeting will take place in the middle of next week in The Hague,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency.

The meeting will also involve Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN special envoy, an unnamed Russian diplomatic source separately told news agency ITAR-TASS.

Neither Gatilov nor the diplomatic source disclosed which Russian and US officials would be meeting, nor the exact date of the talks.

Moscow and Washington agreed in May to conduct the Geneva 2 talks

Gatilov said last week that the Geneva 2 meeting itself would probably not happen until October at the earliest because of a busy diplomatic schedule in September that includes UN meetings in New York.

The negotiations are based on the results of a Syria peace conference held in Geneva in June 2012.

M.D