Russia counts on the Trump administration coming to Syrian conference

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday: “We are counting on the new [US] administration “accepting the invitation to being represented by experts at any level they choose” at the Syrian peace conference opening at Astana, Kazakhstan next Sunday, Jan. 23.  He spoke at a news conference in Moscow. Lavrov noted that this would be the first official contact “to begin discussing stepping up the efficiency of fighting terrorism in Syria,” adding the hope that “cooperation on settling the Syria crisis would be more productive than it was with the Obama administration.”