U.N., Russia to meet on Monday, trilateral talks on Syria postponed after U.S. backs out

The U.N. mediator for Syria said on Thursday he would hold talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov in Geneva on Monday, and that the United States had declined to take part in any trilateral meeting for now.

They will evaluate discussions in the Kazakh capital Astana, planned for May 3-4, that are aimed at reviving the tattered ceasefire, and prospects for convening talks in Geneva between Syria’s warring sides later in May, de Mistura said.

“The trilateral meeting – as you know that was a possibility – is being postponed, it is not taking place on Monday. It will be a bilateral … But the trilateral is not off the table, it is just being postponed,” he told reporters.

De Mistura, asked about the U.S. administration’s intent to participate, replied: “There is a clearly an intention to maintain and resume these trilateral meetings, and the date and circumstances were not conducive for this to happen on Monday.”

The United States carried out a missile strike on a Syrian air base this month after a chemical weapons attack that killed scores of people near Idlib on April 4. Both incidents have raised tensions between Washington and Moscow, the Syrian government’s ally.

“The U.S. welcomes …read more