US, Russian officials to meet on Syria

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA

The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is expected to meet high-level U.S. and Russian officials to push for a resumption of Syria peace talks, the UN said on Friday.

"Our hope is that any discussions on Syria will help move forward with the process so we can also get to starting the next round of intra-Syrian talks," said spokeswoman Jessy Chahine at a new conference at the UN in Geneva.

Chahine declined to give details of the names of participants, discussions or a possible date for a new round of Syria talks.

Noting that de Mistura was in Ankara to meet senior officials to the discuss Syria crisis, Chahine said de Mistura would later meet German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin.