Moscow seriously disappointed with U.S. decision to postpone joint meeting on Syria in The Hague
MOSCOW. Aug 27 (Interfax) - The Russian-U.S. meeting on Syria in The Hague has been postponed on Washington's initiative, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.
"Moscow is seriously disappointed by Washington's decision to postpone this meeting literally just before the date approved to hold it," the Russian Foreign Ministry quoted Lukashevich as saying in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday.
The need to "clarify the situation" regarding Syria in connection with the investigation currently being carried out by UN experts into claims that chemical weapons were used on August 21 in eastern Ghouta near Damascus was behind Washington's decision, Lukashevich said.
"We are certain that coherent actions by Russia and the United States and the entire global community in the interests of ensuring a peaceful outcome to the crisis on the basis of the Geneva communique of June 30, 2012 are growing in importance amid the current dramatic situation being contrived by some countries," Lukashevich said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry assured Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a telephone conversation on August 25 that the U.S. was still committed to the joint Russian-U.S. initiative to convene the Geneva 2 international conference, and would secure the agreement of the Syrian opposition to participate in this forum, Lukashevich said.