The White House on Wednesday disputed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s assertion that the U.S. is resuming Syrian peace talks with Moscow.
Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with Lavrov, but not alone, White House spokesman Josh Earnest confirmed on Wednesday.
“This is actually a meeting of several members of the International Syria Support Group,” Earnest explained. He said the U.S. has gone to great lengths to continue the “multilateral diplomatic efforts that we’re engaged in to try to reduce the violence inside of Syria. And we have pursued those diplomatic efforts through the United Nations; we have pursued those through the International Syria Support Group.”
Although Washington has given up on direct talks with Moscow to end the violence, “we are certainly working through a variety of diplomatic channels to try to reduce the violence inside of Syria; and that’s necessarily going to include some Russian participation,” Earnest said.
The State Department has said repeatedly that it continues to talk to Russia on other issues bilaterally, even though it has ended all substantive bilateral talks on Syria.
