Russia and United States to discuss Syria in Hague next week

Top Russian and US officials will meet in The Hague next week to discuss preparations for a long-delayed international peace conference on Syria, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said on Monday.

“This meeting will take place in the middle of next week in The Hague,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said.

Gatilov has not disclosed which Russian and US officials would be meeting, nor the exact date of the talks.

Moscow and Washington agreed in May to conduct the so-called Geneva 2 talks, which aim to bring together President Bashar Al Assad’s allies and the opposition for the first time after two-and-a-half years of conflict.

Gatilov said last week that the Geneva 2 meeting itself would probably not happen until October at the earliest because of a busy diplomatic schedule in September that includes UN meetings in New York.

The negotiations are based on the results of a Syria peace conference held in Geneva in June 2012, when world powers agreed on the need to establish a transition government in the war-torn country.