Russian, US experts to meet in August to discuss Geneva-2 conference

Russian and U.S. experts are to meet before the end of August to discuss preparations for the Geneva-2 conference for Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday after negotiations between the Russian and U.S. foreign policy and defense chiefs held in the “two plus two” format. “We agreed that Russian and U.S. experts would meet before the end of the month,” the Russian foreign minister said. “We should, against all the odds, seek the earliest convocation of the Geneva-2 conference in accordance with the Russian-U.S. initiative adopted on May 7 this year,” Lavrov noted. “We need to do everything to move towards realization of the assigned goals: the unification of efforts of the Syrian government and opposition to eradicate terrorism and oust terrorists from Syria,” the Russian Foreign Ministry noted. “The government and opposition should reach an agreement in principle on how a transition period should take place in Syria. It should be based on common accord between the government and the opposition,” Lavrov said.