The UN’s Special envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura announced that he would hold talks with a Russian delegation in Geneva, in a bid to evaluate the current political situation ahead of talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana, that are aimed at reviving the tattered ceasefire in Syria, and prospects for convening talks in Geneva between the warring sides. That said, Envoy de Mistura said the United States decided to postpone a trilateral meeting between the UN, US and Russia, clear evidence to the strain relations between the two world powers.
“On Monday, I am going to meet the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Gatilov, Gennady Gatilov, who is specifically coming here for meeting with us in order to discuss what would be the next options regarding the Astana but also the Geneva talks. The trilateral meeting as you know, that was a possibility, is being postponed, is not taking place on Monday. It will be a bilateral meeting between Deputy Minister Gatilov and myself, but the trilateral is not off the table, it is just simply being postponed,” de Mistura.
Following the US strike on the Syrian air-base, which belongs to the Assad regime, in response to a chemical attack that Washington blamed on the Syrian government, tensions have been rising between Moscow and Washington with both sides announcing the suspension of all diplomatic a military coordination pertaining to Syria.