14.09 Lavrov, Kerry Syria Talks to Enter Third Day on Saturday
MOSCOW, September 14 (RIA Novosti) Talks between top Russian and US diplomats about removing chemical weapons from war torn Syria will enter their third day Saturday, according to media reports citing officials from both sides.
Talks between the Russian and US delegations are not over yet and will continue tomorrow, a source in the Russian delegation said late Friday. A US official said the same day that the talks had reached a pivotal point and would continue into Saturday, Reuters reported.
The negotiations over a bid to put Syrias chemical weapons under international control an initiative proposed by Moscow to avoid US military strikes on Syria began on Thursday and are being led by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry.
In a response to the Russian proposal last week, Damascus officially submitted a request to join the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention on Thursday, an agreement that commits its members to destroying their chemical weapons stockpiles.
Little information has been released about the progress of the talks, but Kerry told a news conference Friday that the two sides were committed to trying to work together, Reuters reported. Kerry also said that any future peace talks about the Syrian conflict would be linked to the whether or not the chemical weapons issue could be resolved.
