Lavrov, Kerry to Miss Next Week’s Syria Meeting in Geneva

Published 23-11-2013, 10:00

GENEVA, November 23 (RIA Novosti) – Top diplomats of Russia and the United States do not plan to attend the next week’s meeting in Geneva to discuss preparations for an international peace conference on Syria.

Lakhdar Brakhimi, a United Nations envoy to the meeting, said on Saturday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry had declined to take part in in the meeting, due on November 25.

The two top diplomats will send their deputies instead.

There have been repeated delays over the start of a peace conference in Geneva to seek an end to Syria’s bloody civil war. Participants, including Syria’s ruling regime, Syrian opposition forces, and regional and global powers, have been unable to agree on the preconditions for any negotiations to take place.

RIA Novosti