Sergey Lavrov - Page 5

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that an invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to meet in Moscow was still in force.

Contents: Russia, Iran, Turkey sign farcical Syria peace agreement; Syria peace conference sees a return to ‘proximity talks’; The aftermath of the destruction of Aleppo

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed President Obama’s order that 35 Russian diplomats leave the country, in response to assertions by the intelligence community that Russia had hacked into Democratic email accounts.

Amid frantic diplomatic maneuvers ahead of a Wednesday speech by US Secretary of State John Kerry on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Russia reportedly rejected a request by United States for the Middle East Quartet to adopt the principles set to be presented in the speech.

The Islamic State has once again attacked the Syrian city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and according to several accounts, they have recaptured the city despite heavy Russian and Syrian aerial bombardment.

President Bashar al-Assad said victory in Aleppo would be a “huge step” towards ending Syria’s five-year civil war, ignoring pleas for a truce as rebels in the city lose more ground.

Russia said Monday it would hold talks with Washington on a total rebel withdrawal from Syria’s Aleppo, where the army has made sweeping advances, but opposition factions rejected any evacuation.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday said Tehran and Moscow would continue to cooperate in the Syrian war “until the ultimate goal of eradicating terrorism and restoring peace and full security to the region is achieved.”

The question of whether Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed his suddenly-announced plans to overthrow the Assad regime with Russian President Vladimir Putin when the two were holding telephone conferences about the Syrian crisis last week appears to have been answered.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry voiced concern to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday about renewed fighting and air strikes in the Syrian city of Aleppo after a break of several days, the State Department said.

Syrian and Russian warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes on rebel-held districts of Aleppo on Friday, a monitor said, as world powers prepared for new talks on a ceasefire.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad said on Friday that the Syrian army’s capture of Aleppo, which has come under renewed bombardment in an effort to seize its rebel-held sector, would be “a very important springboard” to pushing “terrorists” back to Turkey.

In an interview with Christiane Amanpour of CNN, devoted largely to allegations of sinister Russian influence in the U.S. presidential election, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dropped a sound bite that is likely to eclipse everything else he said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his Russian counterpart in Switzerland on Saturday to discuss Syria, officials said on Wednesday, as a devastating bombing campaign of the city of Aleppo intensified.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday that Russia had the means to protect its assets in Syria if the United States decided to carpet bomb the Syrian government’s military air fields.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart resumed discussions on Syria on Wednesday despite a US decision earlier this week to suspend direct talks with Moscow on trying to end the conflict.

Contents: United States ends diplomatic talks with Russia over Syria; Russia accuses US of sabotaging ceasefire and ‘allying with terror’

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte says Russian and Chinese diplomats have been very receptive of his many complaints about the United States, and he will continue to develop relations with the two rogue leftist states so long as they approve of his “bloody” war on drugs.

Syrian government and allied forces have advanced toward Aleppo, pursuing their week-old offensive to take the rebel-held part of the city after dozens of overnight air strikes.

Secretary of State John Kerry is threatening to cut off all contacts with Moscow over Syria, unless Russian and Syrian government attacks on Aleppo end.

Contents: Russian warplanes drop phosphorus bombs and bunker buster bombs on Aleppo; Comparisons of Syria civil war to Sri Lanka civil war; US, UK, UN officials accuse Syria and Russia of barbarism and war crimes

John Kerry had heard enough. After last week’s bombing of a U.N. aid convoy in Syria dealt a death blow to a ceasefire deal in which he had invested all his diplomatic capital with Russia, the U.S. Secretary of State tossed aside a page of notes and looked at Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov across the horseshoe-shaped table in the U.N. Security Council.

Contents: Syria’s al-Assad goes for the kill, turning Aleppo and civilians to bloody rubble; Responses to reader comments

It was more than a little discordant to hear Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov tell the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that it is “essential to prevent disruption” of the Syrian ceasefire agreement, while Syrian warplanes — allegedly with Russian help — were showering bombs on the besieged city of Aleppo, with a ground operation waiting in the wings.

Warplanes launched some of the heaviest air strikes yet on rebel-held areas of Aleppo on Friday after the Russian-backed Syrian army declared an offensive to fully capture Syria’s biggest city, killing off any hope of reviving a ceasefire.

The United States and Russia ended any pretenses Thursday of their cease-fire for Syria remaining in force after days of increased violence and the Syrian military’s announcement of a new offensive in Aleppo.

Contents: Kyrgyzstan’s World Nomad Games commemorate lifestyle of Genghis Khan; Syria’s civilians fear worse violence from US-Russia ‘ceasefire’ agreement; Generational theory: Bashar al-Assad’s miscalculation

Contents: Turkey presses to establish a ‘no-fly zone’ in northern Syria; Turkey’s forces and Kurdish forces set to clash in Manbij; US and Russia once again announced a peace deal in Syria

The Obama administration and Russia have agreed to join forces in Syria against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.

Secretary of State John Kerry has said the United States and Russia have agreed to “concrete steps” for trying to revive a crumbling ceasefire in Syria, following a day of marathon talks in Moscow.

The outcome of Secretary of State John Kerry’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin was a renewed push for a “political solution” in Syria, with a call to draft a new Syrian Constitution by August.

The State Department has denied reports that discussions are ongoing with Russia on a mission to liberate Raqqa, Syria, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State’s Caliphate.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that his government will withdraw some its military from Syria six months after the Kremlin began airstrikes in the region.

The Jerusalem Post reports: MOSCOW – Russia is convinced the United Nations peace mediator on Syria Staffan de Mistura should take a decision on including ethnic Kurds in Syria peace talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. Holding

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition have accused each other of breaking a three-day ceasefire imposed to help end the five-year civil war.