Russian FM has no 'special expectations' for weekend Syria talks
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday he had no "special expectations" for talks in Switzerland this weekend on the Syrian crisis, as violence continues to rage in Aleppo.
Lavrov is set to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry and top diplomats from the UN and regional powers in Lausanne on Saturday for the first talks on Syria since Washington halted bilateral negotiations with Moscow on a truce earlier this month.
"I do not have any kind of special expectations," Russian news agencies quoted Lavrov as saying.
Russian airpower is currently backing up Syrian regime forces in a ferocious assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo that has sparked accusations of potential war crimes from the West.
The sides will look at how to revive a short-lived ceasefire that Moscow and Washington hammered out, but Lavrov insisted Russia does not plan to present new initiatives on ways to resolve the conflict, which has claimed more than 300,000 lives since it erupted in 2011.
Instead he said Moscow would call for "concrete steps" to implement earlier UN resolutions and the now defunct US-Russia ceasefire deal.
UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura will attend Saturday's talks, along with the top diplomats of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar -- all backers of Syrian opposition forces.
Hopes are low that the talks with lead to a breakthrough in resolving the five-year conflict that has claimed some 300,000 lives.