The United States and Russia are to chair a meeting in New York on Thursday bringing together world powers with a stake in Syria’s civil war, officials told AFP. The 23-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG) was set up to push for a ceasefire and an eventual political resolution to the bloody five-year-old conflict.
A US official confirmed a meeting was being set up, and diplomats said it would take place at 2 pm (1800 GMT) in a New York hotel. Foreign ministers, already gathered in New York for the UN General Assembly, held an emergency meeting of the ISSG on Tuesday after a week-old truce broke down.
But they made little progress amid bitter recriminations between the ISSG co-chairs, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Washington blames Russia for carrying out a deadly air strike on a UN aid convoy in northern Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s military declared the ceasefire over.
Moscow denies any role in the attack and in turn accuses US leaders of failing to ensure that the US-backed opposition forces fighting Assad respected the truce. Kerry and Lavrov sparred bitterly in the UN Security Council on Wednesday, but ministers agree the US-Russian effort is the only way available to impose a ceasefire.
