US, Russia to meet again on Syria peace talks

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday he and his Russian counterpart agreed to meet again during the U.N. General Assembly in New York around Sept. 28 to discuss a date for international peace talks on Syria. Kerry told reporters after a tripartite meeting with U.N. Joint Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov both sides agreed to do their "homework" without elaborating. The meeting took place on the sidelines of crucial talks between Kerry and Lavrov on neutralizing Syria's chemical weapons. Kerry said success in setting a date for peace talks, labeled Geneva 2, would mostly depend on the "capacity to have success here in the next hours, days on the subject of chemical weapons". Lavrov said Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, had promoted a peaceful resolution of the Syria conflict from its start. Kerry and Lavrov have been discussing putting Syria's chemical weapons under international control since Thursday evening. After each making a short statement, Kerry and Lavrov rushed back to their talks without taking any questions. Brahimi is not involved in the chemical weapons talks as it is not part of his mandate, according to his spokesperson, Khawla Mattar.