Russia, US seek no delay in Syria peace talks
Russia’s foreign minister says he and his US counterpart have not sought a postponement of UN-led Syrian peace talks planned for January 25 between Syria's government and opposition groups.
Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday after a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry that neither he nor his US counterpart had thought about a postponement of the fresh Syria peace talks, which are scheduled to start in Geneva.
Lavrov added that the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front and the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group “can’t be subject to an agreement on a ceasefire as they remain our enemies. And we’ll continue to fight them until their complete annihilation.”
State Department spokesman John Kirby also said after the talks between Kerry and Lavrov in the Swiss city of Zurich that the two sides discussed "the importance of maintaining progress toward a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Syria."
The UN Security Council on December 18, 2015 adopted a resolution supporting an international roadmap for a peace process in Syria. The resolution called for a nationwide ceasefire in Syria and the formation of a “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian” government within six months and UN-supervised “free and fair elections” within 18 months.
Two conferences were previously held in an attempt to resolve the Syrian crisis in the Swiss city of Geneva, one in 2012 and the other in 2014. However, both events ended in failure.
The Syrian conflict, which started in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 260,000 people and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or out of its borders.
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