Russia initiates UN meeting on Syria crisis
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Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, whose country is the most important ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, invited UN ambassadors from key nations and regional and international organizations who agreed in June in Geneva on guidelines for a Syrian-led political transition to a meeting Friday at UN headquarters in New York.
Churkin told reporters he wants the Geneva action group — along with "important actors" Iran and Saudi Arabia, who are not members — to make "a joint or parallel appeal to all the parties of the Syrian conflict that they end violence as soon as possible by a certain point in time." (AP)
