Al-Manar | July 2, 2013
US Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that the United States and Russia were committed to holding Geneva peace conference on Syria but that it would likely take place after August.
Kerry, speaking after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the annual regional forum of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Brunei, said “we both agree that the conference should happen sooner rather than later” to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian war.
But he said that the conference, originally planned for June, could not happen this month due to US-Russian meetings and that “August is very difficult for Europeans and others,” a likely reference to summer vacations.
“It may be somewhere thereafter,” he said of the timing of the conference.
Kerry also said he did not have substantive discussions with Lavrov on US whistleblower Edward Snowden. The meeting between Kerry and Lavrov follows controversy surrounding Snowden, who leaked details of a US surveillance programme.
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