MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) – US and Russian diplomats will meet in The Hague on August 28 to discuss preparations for the long-delayed Syria peace conference, a diplomatic source in Washington told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
“The meeting in the Hague will take place on August 28,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
The Russian side will be most likely represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov and President Putin’s special representative for the Middle East, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.
UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi will not take part in the talks, the UN said Tuesday in a statement.
Moscow and Washington proposed in May to hold an international conference aimed at facilitating a solution to the Syrian crisis through political dialogue. At least 100,000 people have been killed in Syria since fighting broke out between government forces and rebels in March 2011.
The so-called Geneva-2 conference is designed to be a follow-up to last summer’s international meeting in Geneva during which a peace roadmap for Syria was drafted, including the establishment of a transitional government, with full executive powers and made up of members of President Bashar Assad’s regime and opposition groups.
Russia has repeatedly warned against further delaying the new conference on Syria because the peace terms set by the previous conference have never been implemented and the civil war continues to tear apart the once prosperous Arab nation.
