Lavrov Urges Coordinating Efforts to Solve Crisis in Syria

MOSCOW, (ST)- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has reiterated that all the players active in Syria and abroad should coordinate their actions to achieve a result that would guarantee the sovereignty of the Syrian state and solve the crisis.

Lavrov remarks came during his meeting on Thursday in Moscow with the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.

On hi s part, de Mistura said that without efforts in Astana the Geneva process cannot be successful, because these talks complement each other.

The Astana process is connected with the one in Geneva in a certain way, he said.

“Without a good de-escalation process Geneva talks will be difficult, but without the Geneva progress there will be no horizon,” he said.

“I look forward also to the meeting with the Minister of Defense Shoigu, so that we can also address some issues related to humanitarian assistance, demining and linked to the consolidation of the de-escalation environment,” he added.

Bogdanov: Astana Meeting Scheduled for June 20

In the same context, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Special Envoy for the Middle East and North Africa Michael Bogdanov announced that June 20, 2017 was fixed as a preliminary  date for holding the next round of Astana talks on Syria. The meeting was previously scheduled for June 12-13 before it was postponed to June 20 following contacts with the other two guarantors: Turkey and Iran.

Intensive work is underway to tackle some details and prepare some relevant documents to be discussed in the coming Astana meeting, Bogdanov pointed out.

Hamda Mustafa