Low expectations from the 6th Kerry-Lavrov parley on Syria

Not much is expected to come out of the deadlocked dialogue on Syria from the sixth meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are holding in Geneva Thursday – in the wake of the talks held by their presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin at the G20. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow outlined a three-part agenda for the latest round: Russian-US cooperation to combat ISIS in Syria; wider humanitarian corridors; and a fresh attempt to negotiate at a long-term peace accord for ending the Syrian war. For an assessment of the chances of a breakthrough, see DEBKAfile’s special analysis. .