The U.N. special envoy to Syria said on Friday that he hopes to
be able to hold new talks on Syria's conflict in Geneva in August as
concerns mount over humanitarian access to the bitterly contested city
of Aleppo.
Speaking to reporters in Berlin,
Staffan de Mistura said he and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "are
determined to actually look for a proper date in August" for new
intra-Syria talks.
Russia and the United
States have recently concluded bilateral talks on Syria, and de Mistura
said it is important first to see how steps agreed upon there play out.
"We
are eagerly waiting to see those steps become concrete and visible," he
said, adding that "the next three weeks ... are going to be extremely
important."
De Mistura also said that he had
just been in Ankara, and despite the recent coup attempt, the Turkish
authorities remain "very serious about focusing on the issue of Syria
and are fully aware that there is a need of addressing a political
solution there."
Ahead of de Mistura's
comments, his spokeswoman in Geneva said there were already plans to
hold a meeting of "fairly high-level" diplomats from the U.S., U.N. and
Russia next week to discuss the Syria conflict.
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