Russia is to take the role of Middle East power broker on Monday when it seeks to strengthen the Syrian ceasefire by sponsoring a face-to-face meeting between opposition fighters and representatives of Bashar al-Assad’s government. The talks are also sponsored by Turkey and Iran, but the US, the EU, Saudi Arabia and the UN are, for the moment, largely marginalised. Russia faces a new set of challenges as it attempts to move from participant in the conflict to peace broker. Leaders of the Syrian opposition delegation, representing as many as 12 factions, claimed on the eve of the Astana talks that Moscow genuinely wanted to move to a neutral stance but was being held back by the Iranian and the Syrian governments. READ MORE OF THIS REPORTSOURCE: News Now/The Guardian(Visited 7 times, 7 visits today)Commentscomments

Source: GNN Liberia January 22, 2017 18:27 UTC