Russia, US and UN Meet on Syria Today

News of the meeting was first reported by Russia’s RIA news agency, citing Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov. “We will present our vision of the situation (in Syria), with emphasis on the need to intensify the fight against terrorism. It is a priority for us. We call for an increase in joint efforts in this area,” Gatilov said. Contacts between Kerry and Lavrov were key to holding two international meetings in Vienna in October and November, where countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, backed a plan for De Mistura to oversee talks between the Syrian government and opposition in Geneva in January.

De Mistura told Reuters Friday’s Geneva talks were part of preparatory work. He declined to go into detail about the talks, which he initiated. “It’s to talk about how to better organize the future Vienna meetings,” he said. The next “Vienna” meeting is in fact most likely to be in New York later this month. But Kerry has said the New York meeting hinges on efforts currently under way in Saudi Arabia to unite Syrian opposition groups. De Mistura said the Geneva meeting was not intended to review the outcome of the effort to unite the Syrian opposition. “It would be a little bit early if that was the case.” In he ongoing war of words between Turkey and Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, termed Turkey’s allegation that Russia attempting “ethnic cleansing” in northern Syria, as “groundless”. 

Meanwhile, buses carrying Syrian rebel fighters and their families safely reached the northwestern city of Idlib overnight after withdrawing from Homs under a local ceasefire agreement, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday. The United Nations presided over the deal, which the mayor of Homs said involved 300 fighters and 400 members of their families leaving Waer, the last rebel-held area of the city that has been a centre of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.