Kerry to meet with ‘regional partners’ on Syria
BEIRUT (AP): UNITED STATES Secretary of State John Kerry will discuss ways to resolve the Syria crisis at a meeting with counterparts from “key regional partners” in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Saturday.
The State Department’s spokesman said in a statement yesterday that Kerry would discuss a “multilateral approach” to ending the crisis, “including a sustained cessation of violence and the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries”.
It did not specify which regional partners would take part. Kerry was expected in Lausanne after travelling to Rwanda, and would later travel to London.
Russia had earlier said that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would meet with Kerry in Lausanne. It would be the first meeting between the two since Washington cut off bilateral contact with Russia on Syria following the collapse of a ceasefire last month.
The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has been invited to attend the meeting.
De Mistura’s spokeswoman, Jessy Chahine, said the envoy had been invited, but declined to comment further.
Violence has flared in Syria, particularly in and around the northern city of Aleppo, since a US and Russian-brokered ceasefire collapsed last month. Washington and Moscow have traded blame for the failure of the truce.