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Russia-US-UN meeting on Syria Geneva 2 conference

52b448528c6bfDiplomats from Russia, the US and the UN held a consultative meeting on Friday in Geneva to resume discussions on organizing the intended international conference on Syria, known as Geneva 2.
The Russian delegation to the meeting, the fifth of its kind, is chaired by Deputy Foreign Ministers Mikhail Bogdanov and Gennady Gatilov, according to Russia Today website.
Undersecretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman is heading the US delegation, while the UN is represented by its envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi.
Earlier on the day Bogdanov met a delegation of the opposition “Doha Coalition” and stressed the importance to accelerate finding a solution to the crisis in Syria through comprehensive dialogue without preconditions.
Russia Today website quoted a source at the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that the meeting focused on issues related to the preparations for the Geneva 2 conference, scheduled on January 22nd as set by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The Russian side stressed on the need to speed up the process of settling the crisis through comprehensive dialogue among the Syrians without preconditions.
Once the tripartite consultative meeting ends, the Russian, US and UN sides will be joined by representatives of the rest of the UN Security Council member states;Britain, China and France,and delegations of Syria’s neighboring countries, including Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Turkey.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier said the combating cross-border terrorism in Syria must be a key issue on the agenda of the international conference, which is due to be held in the Swiss city of Montreux instead of Geneva where there is a lack of hotel space.
Gatilov noted on Thursday that it has not yet been determined who the delegation of the “Syrian opposition” will include.

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