Syria and Russia discuss peace talks

A Syrian delegation held here today talks with Deputy Foreign Ministers Gennady Gatilov and Mikhail Bogdanov over the planned conference in Geneva , the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday . The Syrian delegation includes Buthaina Shaaban, political and media adviser to the President of Syria, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad, and Ahmad Arnous, the Syrian Foreign Ministry’s senior official on European affairs. In this context, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed with his U.S. counterpart John Kerry preparations for the Geneva II Conference during a telephone conversation took place between them yesterday. Representatives of Russia and the United States met with UN-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi in Geneva on the fifth of November but they were unable to set a date for the conference, and decided to hold a preparatory meeting for the Geneva II Conference on the twenty-fifth of this month.