Kerry to meet Putin in Moscow on Tuesday on Syria: US
The US State Department says Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over the years-old crisis in Syria.
"They will discuss ongoing efforts to achieve a political transition in Syria and related efforts to degrade and destroy ISIL," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Paris on Friday, using an acronym for the Daesh terrorist group.
This will be Kerry’s second visit to Moscow this year. He met Putin in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi in May and has often met with Lavrov during various international events.
The Moscow talks will probably take place ahead of a possible meeting in New York on December 18, which will be trying to push forward the Syrian political process.
Kerry said on Tuesday that the international meeting on ending the Syrian conflict may be held next week, but details about who should represent militant groups fighting in Syria are still being ironed out.
The United States and Russia are the main sponsors of the talks, which aim to mediate a ceasefire between the Syrian government and Takfiri militants fighting against Damascus.
Last month, the Syrian peace talks in Vienna yielded an agreement between officials from Russia, the US, Iran and several European and Middle Eastern countries, on a two-year timeline leading to Syrian national elections.
It is not yet clear if Kerry’s visit will signal any changes in Washington’s stance on the Ukrainian conflict. The US has so far been siding with the Kiev government, a position that was echoed by Vice President Joe Biden during his recent visit to Ukraine.
"If Russian aggression persists, the cost imposed on Moscow will continue to rise," Biden said Tuesday in an address to the Ukrainian Parliament on the second day of his visit to Kiev.
The United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed as a result of the clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian forces since the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine in April 2014.
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