The war has killed more than 250,000, by the United Nations’ estimate, and has driven 4 million Syrians into foreign refuge. The invitation also comes as Croatia is anxiously awaiting news of a kidnapped citizen threatened with death by the so-called Islamic State.
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The Syrian National Coalition may be motivated to hear what Moscow officials have to say because of whispers emanating from Turkey and elsewhere that Putin may be more amenable now than he was at the start of his ally’s civil war to see a government of national unity replace Assad as an element of a peace plan. The group has been involved in mediating the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, but talks have been suspended for over a year.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet for a second time in three days on Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who has been trying to bring about a rapprochement between Syria and regional states to forge an alliance to fight Islamic State militants.
Salopek was apparently kidnapped on July 22 while on his way to work, a French company active in Egyp’s oil and natural gas sector.
Lavrov’s remarks came after a meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of the ASEAN Ministerial in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur, according to a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The United States said on Sunday it had decided to allow air strikes to defend Syrian rebels trained by the U.S. military from any attackers.
Also on Wednesday, Kerry met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Despite Russia-U.S. tensions over Ukraine, President Barack Obama has thanked Moscow for helping reach the agreement.
Lavrov added that Russian and U.S. experts will keep working to try to iron out differences.
“We have decided to go but a date has not yet been fixed”, for what would be the group’s first mission to Russian Federation since February 2014, when the coalition was led by Ahmad Jarba, he said.
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