PRESS RELEASE

---

Kerry, Lavrov Meeting in Lausanne on Syria, But No Breakthrough Expected

Oct. 14, 2016 (EIRNS)—U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will convene a meeting with three or four other foreign ministers in yet another attempt to secure an agreement on a series of short cease-fires in Aleppo, Syria. The other countries participating are expected to be Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. It had also been suggested that Iran might be participating, but Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported yesterday that Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif would not be going. The Guardian’s Julian Borger reported from Washington yesterday that US officials are downbeat about the chances that 72-hour truces in Syria, even if agreed, will ever be implemented.

Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov, in a briefing to reporters yesterday, stressed that the two sides are still talking, as it’s "practically the only one remaining platform for an exchange of opinions." He refused, however, to make any forecast as to what the outcome of the meeting might be. Lyndon LaRouche commented that that’s the right attitude. There should be no optimism about this meeting.

After Lausanne, Kerry will travel to London on Sunday to brief his British, French, and German counterparts.