Russia plans to hold talks with the US and the UN next week in Geneva aimed at breathing new life into the Syrian peace process, state media reported, in what would mark the first such contacts since the new administration of US President Donald Trump took office.
UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura has agreed to attend and Russia is awaiting confirmation from US officials, the TASS news service yesterday quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying.
Russia will be represented at talks on Monday next week by Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov, TASS reported, citing an unidentified Russian diplomat.
Russia and the US have been at loggerheads since Trump ordered a missile strike on Syria earlier this month in retaliation for a chemical attack blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson failed to resolve the tensions at talks last week, which came hours before Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that demanded al-Assad’s government cooperate with an investigation.
The long-running UN-sponsored Syria peace talks are due to resume next month.
Meanwhile, the evacuation of more than 3,000 Syrians scheduled to take place on Sunday from four areas was postponed, opposition activists said.
News of the postponement came as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights updated the death toll from a suicide car-bomb attack on buses carrying evacuees from government-held towns, including Foua and Kfarya, on Saturday.
At least 80 children were among the 126 people killed in the attack, the Britain-based observatory said.
A wounded girl, who said she lost her four siblings in the blast, told al-Manar TV from her hospital bed that children who had been deprived of food for years in the two towns were approached by a man in the car who told them to come and eat potato chips.
She said once many had gathered, there was an explosion that tore some of the children to pieces.
It was not immediately clear if the evacuees who were to travel on Sunday feared attacks similar to Saturday’s bombing.
However, the delay came as shells fired by the Islamic State group on government-held parts of the eastern city of Deir el-Zour wounded two members of a Russian media delegation visiting the area, according to state-run Syrian Arab News Agency
Russia’s Anna-News military news service, which employs the journalists, said one was wounded in the arm while the other suffered leg and stomach wounds.
The news service said the two were evacuated adding that their condition was “satisfactory.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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