Russia: Calls for Military Intervention in Syria an Attempt to Wipe out Efforts to Convene Geneva II

MOSCOW- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will hold an emergency press conference on Syria on Monday, August 26, according to the Voice of Russia.

 The situation around Syria amid allegations about use of chemical weapons on its territory will top the agenda, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The press conference will begin at 4 pm with Russian and foreign mass media invited to attend it.

 Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry had a telephone conversation to discuss the situation in and around Syria at the initiative of the Russian side.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry statement, Lavrov stressed that “the official statements made in the past few days by Washington about the readiness of the US armed forces to intervene in the Syrian conflict are regarded in Moscow with deep concern. One gets the impression that certain circles, including those that are increasingly active in their calls for a military intervention in circumvention of the United Nations, are frankly trying to wipe out the Russian-American joint efforts of the past few months to convene an international conference on the peaceful settlement of the crisis.”

H. Mustafa