UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura will hold talks on Tuesday with top US and Russian officials in Geneva in a bid to revive flagging peace talks, his office said.
US mission spokesman Paul Patin told reporters that the State Department’s special envoy for Syria Michael Ratney will be at the meeting, while Russia’s Ria-Novosti news agency said Moscow will be represented by deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov.
De Mistura’s spokeswoman Jessy Chahine, who confirmed the meeting, gave no details about its agenda, but the UN envoy has been trying to save a peace process which some feared was facing total collapse, The Daily Starreported.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov earlier this month announced an agreement on “concrete steps” to salvage a failing ceasefire in Syria, a key step before negotiations can resume.
Kerry and Lavrov were also due to meet on the sidelines of an Asian summit in Vientiane, Laos on Tuesday.
When peace talks to end the five-year war restarted in February, de Mistura voiced hope that he could strike a deal for a new transitional government in Syria by Aug.1.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also called for a return to political discussion among the warring parties in Syria, The Gulf Today reported.
