Paris Meeting on Lebanon Set to be Overshadowed by Ukraine Crisis
The U.S. and Russian foreign ministers will attend French-sponsored talks in Paris Wednesday on helping Lebanon cope with the conflict in Syria, but the talks look set to be overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis, France said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was scheduled to come for the meeting of the International Support Group for Lebanon meeting but French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday that Russia's Sergei Lavrov would also attend the conference.
Lavrov "will come here day after tomorrow as France is hosting a meeting on Lebanon," Fabius told RTL radio.
"I am meeting him on that day, the day after and possibly" for a bilateral meeting ahead of the Lebanon talks in Paris, he said.
Fabius' entourage said he and Lavrov would discuss the escalating Ukraine conflict on the sidelines of the Lebanon Group meeting.
Russia's G8 partners have denounced Russia's moves on Ex-Soviet Ukraine and have suspended preparations for the G8 summit in Sochi in June.
The support group was set up in New York in September 2013 on the sidelines of the 68th session of the General Assembly to help Beirut deal with the implications of the brutal war in Syria that began in March 2011.
It is intended to provide financial, political and security support to the country.
It undertook to work together to mobilize support for the sovereignty and state institutions of Lebanon and to highlight and promote efforts to assist the country where it was most affected by the Syrian crisis, including in respect of strengthening the capacity of the Lebanese Armed Forces, assistance to refugees, and structural and financial support to the government.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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