Russian adviser says Geneva talks on Syria still have potential

MOSCOW/DUBAI (Reuters) – An adviser to the United Nations on Russia’s involvement in the Syrian conflict said on Tuesday that UN-led peace talks in Geneva still had potential, less than a week before separate talks supported by Moscow were due to begin in Kazakhstan.

Russia announced in December it wanted to broker a peace deal between the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and opposition forces, helped by Iran and Turkey. Negotiations are due to begin in the Kazakh capital Astana on January 23.

Moscow has said these talks will be in addition to the UN-led negotiations in Geneva, though Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has previously dismissed them as “fruitless sitting around.”

Vitaly Naumkin, a consultant to UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura who has the trust of the Kremlin, said he was sure the talks in Geneva would go ahead as planned on February 8, but that he hoped the Astana talks would at minimum be able to consolidate a ceasefire between the two sides.

“Some people say that we need to bury the Geneva process, that the UN. cannot do any more,” he told reporters. “I don’t think that interpretation is correct.

“I am sure that the potential of the Geneva process is far from finished.”

Lavrov said earlier on Tuesday he believed it was right to invite the United States to take part in the Astana talks but that he had information certain European countries were planning to “wreck” the efforts.

De Mistura, has said the Astana talks should pave the way for next round of UN.backed negotiations which is due to begin on February 8.

Meanwhile, Iran opposes a US presence in peace talks on the Syria conflict that are planned for January 23 in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, the Tasnim news agency quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying on Tuesday.

Answering a question about Iran’s stance over possible US involvement, Zarif said: “We have not invited them, and we are against their presence.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday he thought it was right to invite the Trump administration to peace talks on Syria.