STRASBOURG (Sputnik) – Germany hopes for more progress to be achieved during the forthcoming talks on the situation in the Syrian city of Aleppo to be held in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Saturday than during the ones that were held in New York, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday.
“In the coming days, as you have heard, there will be further consultations on the issue [situation in Aleppo]… We should not lose the hope, assuming that we will manage to achieve a greater breakthrough than in New York,” Steinmeier told journalists.
In late September, members of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) failed to agree on the dates for the new round of the intra-Syria talks during a meeting in New York.
On Saturday, Russia blocked a French draft resolution in the UN Security Council calling for cessation of all aerial bombardments in Aleppo. The document received 11 votes in support, two votes against (Russia and Venezuela), while two more members of the Security Council abstained (China and Angola). Russia's resolution on Syria also failed to pass, with four votes in favor and nine against.
