US special envoy for Syria will visit Russia at end of August, but has no concrete proposals

WASHINGTON, August 27. /TASS/. US Special Envoy for Syria Michael Ratney will pay official visits to Moscow, Riyadh and Geneva from August 28 to September 2, US State Department Spokesperson John Kirby told journalists on Wednesday. However, there are no specific proposals on Syria right now, Kirby noted. "He’s [Ratney] going to be representing Secretary [John] Kerry to talk specifically about options that we, the international community, could make, certainly in this trilateral group of US, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, to try to come up with options for some sort of political process - a political process that we know is going to have to include opposition groups - and try to work through what that means and what that’s going to look like," the spokesperson explained. "But this is one area where we think there could be room for cooperation with Russia on. And again, the Secretary wants to continue to explore that, and that’s why Mr. Ratney is heading over there. We’ll see where it goes," Kirby said. "I don’t think there are right now specific proposals. I think these talks are very nascent, they’re very much in the - at the beginning. I don’t think we’re at the point now where we’ve got a list of specific proposals. But that we are having this dialogue and discussion, especially with Russia, with whom we have many disagreements, I think that’s encouraging. We just need to see where it goes," he continued. Answering a question on whether the US administration is ready to consider Syrian President Bashar Assad as a partner in fight against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization, Kirby said: "We absolutely do not accept them as a partner in the fight against ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, former name of IS], and we have not, not since the beginning of this." Talking about recent visits of the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and United Arab Emirates to Moscow, the US State Department spokesperson said: "I’m not aware of any specific communications that we’ve had with those leaders with respect to this meeting in Moscow." US Special Envoy for Syria Michael Ratney will visit Moscow on August 28, Saudi Arabia - on August 29. After that, he will hold consultations in Geneva with UN Special Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura. Ratney was appointed as US Special Envoy for Syria at the end of July. Read more