Lavrov, Kerry Meet during G20 Summit, Discuss Further Steps to Resolve Crisis in Syria

HANGZHOU, China-  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed with US Secretary of State John Kerry at a meeting in Hangzhou further steps to resolve the crisis in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday, according to Sputnik.

China’s Hangzhou is currently hosting the G20 summit.

“On September 4, during the summit of the “Group of Twenty” [G20] in Hangzhou (China), Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a separate meeting with US State Secretary John Kerry,” the statement read.

  According to the ministry, the sides discussed “further steps to assist in resolving the conflict  in Syria, including the task of consolidating the cessation of hostilities and the Russian-US cooperation in the fight against terrorist groups.”

Following his talks with Lavrov on the sidelines of the G20 summit in China, Kerry made a statement  to reporters in which he said that he and Lavrov agreed to meet on Monday morning to discuss differences on Syria.

“Everybody knows how complicated this issue [Crisis in Syrian] is, because of how many different forces are involved,” Kerry told the reporters.

 “Therefore we decided to meet tomorrow to see if we can bridge differences on couple of issues.” “There still remains a couple of tough issues that we need to work on,” he said, refusing to specify what the remaining sticking points are.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier on Sunday that the Russian and US officials were “close to reaching a deal” and that there were “no grounds” to expect the talks to collapse.

Ryabkov further said that the agreement whose details have been kept secret will help to separate terrorists from “opposition” forces.

H.M