Gulf, Russia to set new date for talks over Syria

Gulf states and Russia will set a new date for a meeting between foreign ministers over the crisis in Syria, Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khaled Al-Jarallah said yesterday. “A new date will be agreed through talks between the two sides and we hope it will be shortly,” Al-Jarallah told reporters after meeting with parliament’s foreign relations committee. Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah told parliament on Thursday that the meeting was going to take place in Riyadh on March 7. But Al-Jarallah said that the meeting was “postponed.”  “The Russian side was informed that the Gulf foreign ministers believe that the date was inappropriate because they were tied up with other work,” he said. Russia on Thursday confirmed it had agreed to discuss the Syrian crisis with Gulf foreign ministers, but did not say that a firm date had been set. “We have received the agreement in principle from member states of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf to organize such a meeting,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told ITAR-TASS. “We hope that we will be able to agree on a mutually-acceptable date in the near future.” Moscow along with Beijing has twice wielded its Security Council veto to block UN action on the crisis in Syria, first in October last year and again in February. Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, have strongly criticized the Russian and Chinese stances on Syria. Meanwhile, speaker of Egypt’s parliament, Dr Mohammad Al-Katatni, is eager to hold talks with his Kuwaiti counterpart, Ahmad Al-Saadoun, regarding several Arab issues and specifically the situation in Syria, according to statements he made on Saturday. Al-Katatni was speaking upon his arrival in Kuwait, where he will take part in the two-day 18th Arab Inter-parliamentary Union conference which starts here this morning. “The Syrian issue will be the focus of discussions” and also include problems that several Arab countries face at the present time, such as unemployment and other economic issues. Meanwhile, a number of Kuwaiti Islamist MPs met on Saturday with members of the Syrian National Council who are currently visiting the country. Reportedly, they discussed the need for the Syrian Opposition to coordinate with the ‘free army’. According to a source who attended the meeting, lawmakers Jamaan Al-Harbash, Mohammad Hayef, Waleed Al-Tabtabaei, Mohammad Al-Dallal, Nayef Al-Merdas, Osama Al-Shaheen and Falah Al-Sawagh were present during the meeting. They urged the Syrian delegation to boost coordination within the Syrian Opposition. When asked to help arm the rebels, they explained that this subject is out of their hands being parliament members. The delegation is expected to meet with government officials during its visit to Kuwait, said the sources who preferred to speak on the condition of anonymity.