but foreign minister lavrov and i have conducted a broad discussion with president putin and together. about our increasing cooperation particularly with respect to the issues surrounding syria. i want to express my thanks to president putin for the significant amount of time that he gave to a very productive very warm and friendly discussion that we had today. and i think it has contributed significantly to our ability to map our road ahead because president putin specifically turned to foreign minister lavrov and designated him to work directly with me on this effort and we have decided on the following to follow up on what circuit said we believe that. the geneva communique is the important track to end the bloodshed in syria and it should not be a piece of paper it should not be a forgotten communique of diplomacy it should be the road map the implemented manner by which the people of syria could find their way to the new syria and by which the bloodshed the killing the massacres can end. encouraging. the stated intentions of the syrian government and the opposition groups to find

state secretary after he meets the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov the talks between u.s. secretary of state john kerry and the russian leadership has been going on for hours now we're expecting a media conference by john kerry in the foreign minister sergei lavrov any moment now. contributor afshin rattansi gave me his opinion on why the two sides are finding it so hard to find common ground. kerry is saying the united states every state is saying. that they have common interests they both promote regional stability prevent the spread of extremism is difficult and what russian president vladimir putin can possibly say to the u.s. secretary of state because we all know most of the world knows that the major powers have been doing exactly the opposite not promoting regional stability and helping the spread of extremism how have they managed to talk through these hours and less presumably mr putin is explaining to john kerry that the only way to prevent seasons to stop late to backing the rebels in syria what would john kerry be saying about the latest news concerning those

oppose the move say you would only feel the conflict this as russia as a foreign minister sergey lavrovand u.s. secretary of state john kerry met in paris to organize syrian peace talks are going to school has the details. you can say that it was the win for france and the u.k. have been pushing for a lifting of the arms embargo on syria all along you have to know that at the same time all the other sanctions particularly the economic ones remain in place and that means that every individual european state will have to decide whether or not they want to proceed with this shipment of arms to syria with the hague already said the lifting of the arms embargo is the only way to end the crisis which has been ripping syria apart for more than two years that this point having said that we have to remember that even the most of the e.u. countries there's a strong disagreement on whether or not it is actually a good idea to lift the arms embargo of countries like sweden netherlands in the czech republic belief that allowing weapons shipments to syria to the syrian rebels will only intensify the

what john kerry and sergey lavrov said in paris they expressed their concerns with it and. by then john kerry's that that that hasn't been hasn't been obviously determined that that's an issue that needs to be told to leave it dealt with accordingly and the evidence of these. parties really fun to talk to the. world you know bringing to the. house and to be able to eat up all. minister expressed his concern that with these so-called third parties those who are not directly involved in the conflict and get are making it very obvious where their interest lies he was talking about states like qatar and saudi arabia he said that they too if they decide that it is important for them what's going on in syria that they also need to go to the geneva conference and have their say over all of course both russia and the united states i believe that it's up to the syrian people to decide on the interim government to sit down at the table and stop the bloodshed that has been going on in syria for two years now and will carry the for me to be studies with the ball going to tell us more a

sergey lavrov and sergey lavrov underscored their commitment to the communique signed in june last year which calls for a transitional government to be established in syria that includes both sides but how can the international community get to that point if european union members with the support of the us are now considering to actually fled syria with even more arms experts believe that our being the syrian rebels will ignite an arms freeze in that country and so far according to the un the conflict there has claimed the lives of more than eighty thousand people and if more weapons flow into the country to arm the syrian rebels. crisis because of it would of course be exacerbated even further fears of an upsurge in killings in syria if french arms supplies reach the rebels are based on what's been happening in the conflict zone over the past two years well syrian activists have been monitoring the surges in violence which appear to be correlated to an influx of arms from abroad according to figures casualties rose sharply after the first shipment arrived from qatar reportedly in twen

secretary of state has been meeting with that lavrov trying to make sure that these diplomacy efforts go through but they are saying that this is a disappointment that this is a double standard policy which directly. damages the prospects of an international peace conference on to syria now one of the concerns also is that the syrian conflict will widen into a broader regional conflict and in fact serial has syria israel rather has responded to this information as well stating the israel interior minister saying. that syria has not yet received the s. three hundred missile system but they do view this as a potential threat to their sovereignty and says that if syria does gain possession of the s. three hundred system that they know how to act in that case so lots of developments coming out of the syrian conflict right now mainly involving russia will go through with old contracts on the s. three hundred missile defense system. john thanks very much indeed for bringing us this update from thomas there. u.k. and france have now opened the door for arms to flow into the hands of the syri

according to foreign minister lavrov the whole idea of supplying weapons to non governmental entities or rebels in this case is illegal and goes against all international laws and agreements signed by all members of the european union look at the syrian opposition in general then there is not one single force which could represent it as a tool it's as divided as they get plus some groups within the opposition or within the rebels or internationally recognized terrorist organizations another thing that the foreign minister talked about. the events we've been witnessing recently around syria i raising a lot of concern that some forces are trying to undermine all the previous efforts to restore peace in the country including the upcoming peace conference which just planned to take place in geneva there was a loss of international work going on around it including some progress made by russia and the united states progress which perhaps may now be lost the foreign minister made the comments after meeting with the u.s. secretary of state and the french foreign minister in paris and added t

to tell me what came out of the talks today between john kerry and his russian counterpart sergey lavrov. well that may get us certainly what came out of the talks was quite unexpected in a sense because while the war drums are beating here in the united states with certain lawmakers proposing bills that would indicate following steps of u.s. heavy involvement in syria we did hear more lighter talk come out of these negotiations in moscow earlier today basically what we heard was that. john kerry has said that the u.s. and russia have similar positions on the syrian crisis and that they both believe the two countries that sold the syrian crisis everybody needs to stick to the geneva communiqué road map for creating a transitional government in syria which was outlined in june last year and both russia and the united states according to kerry and lavrov believe that this is still the most tangible way of trying to come up with a solution in syria and they're both of basically are saying that the opposition in the syrian government need to create a transitional government that would manage

chief ban ki-moon and the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov have met in the black sea resort of sochi to try to find a way to end the violence in syria. this is the latest in a series of the top-level talks. both men say a peace conference needs to be held but then russia has been defending its sale of weapons to syria. ban ki-moon meanwhile tackled the issue of alleged chemical weapon use inside syria. he called on damascus to let u.n. experts to check the claims. >> our team is ready at any time within 24 to 48 hours notice they can immediately conduct an investigation. i urge syrian authorities to be flexible and allow our teams to have on-site investigation. >> ban ki-moon is also due to meet with the russian president. why russia could hold the key to ending conflict in syria. if you want to join in sincere yeah, you have to come to russia. president vladimir putin has been playing host to an increasingly long queue of statesman trying to stop the bloodshed. theat arrive is the un secretary-general ban ki-moon. so far, the russian leader has shown no sign of abandoning bash

them and to prevent the growth of violent extremism so i strongly support the conference that mr lavrov for mr kerry agreed this week to deliver a political solution a solution which has a transitional government based on the consent of the syrian people as a whole so clearly the events of the of this past week have given us a clear indication that there may be interesting things to come in terms of the syrian conflict and this conference can actually produce something of a peaceful solution to the syrian conflict the western backing for the opposition is being blamed for the movement going in creasing the radicalize russian and european politics expert but as i mentioned sockless says the mediating pressure spearheaded by moscow was a time sitting there trying to round we do know quite a lot about the details of some of the groups involved though the details of the dynamics between them we know very little we do know that the various militant al-qaeda affiliated groups are strengthening because they have been the most years aleut what has been the greatest tragedy of this whole thing o

the meeting in moscow less than two weeks ago when john kerry and russian foreign minister sergey lavrov and the russian president vladimir putin agreed to hold an intern. conference by the end of this month to have both the syrian government and the syrian opposition at the same negotiation table and back then sergey lavrov told john kerry that he saw clear signs coming from the syrian government that they were willing to take part in this negotiation while nothing like that nothing of the same sort was coming from the opposition this stance was reached rated again by the russian foreign minister during his meeting with the deputy foreign minister of syria today in a moscow we are waiting for a reaction from the russian foreign ministry on the latest statement by john kerry and we know that the russian foreign minister and the u.s. states actually had a conversation over the phone today about the peace conference which is due to be held by the end of this month but the biggest question in the light of the statement by john kerry in amman is whether this peace conference would be held at

officials say that lavrov and kerry are indeed meeting in paris they'll be discussing attempts to try and get together an international conference in geneva in june to try and get together crucially bashar al assad's government and syrian rebel groups to try and talk peace after this two year civil war there may be problems however syrian rebel groups have factions within them and divisions and their central demand that bashar assad should step down may prove a deadlock russia has also asked iran and saudi arabia to attend the conference as well they have not yet answers france has for it part voiced concerns over iran attending because of arms supplies to bashar al assad's forces and all this time is coming at a time when tensions are rising in the region because other countries are now being drawn in aren't they. indeed the u.s. the u.n. bigger problem says that eighty thousand people have died in the two year conflict and more than one point three million refugees have fled from syria's borders but beyond that there is controversy over the possibility of russia supplying s three hu

john kerry and sergey lavrov and i think that brahimi is correct when he says this is the one bright spot on the horizon because the arm for continuing they're not arms for peace arms are for war and so i mean i'm thinking that john kerry and lavrov who have apparently headed off on personal and political levels there's a report from washington that the both of them are going to travel together and guess where they got to go they're going to go to the presidential palace and they're going to talk to bashar assad assad is not the devil he's made huge mistakes he will go eventually but let's let the the process to work with the interference from the outside and i disagree that the international community is united regime change as are all the case so i think we're going to see some progress and we might be surprised a lot of official i've talked to in syria and common people have not given up on by bashar assad he may decide to go but. we've got to we've got to keep hands off let the election in. next year take place let the russians and the americans and the iranians the iranians have

them and to prevent the growth of violent extremism so i strongly support the conference that mr lavrov for mr kerry agreed this week to deliver a political solution a solution which has a transitional government based on the consent of the syrian people as a whole so clearly the events of the of this passing week have given us a clear indication that there may be interesting things to come in terms of the syrian conflict and this conference can actually produce something of a peaceful solution. here if you ask a correspondent there now he was toppled he was jailed exiled but now now is sharif looks said to return to power after claiming an early victory in pakistan's general election the vote was a first indeed in which a civilian government after serving its full term will hand power over to another democratically elected government threats by the taliban to disrupt the poll were borne out by attacks across the land that killed twenty four people caffein off reports. despite the threat of violence pakistanis came out in record numbers to vote in the election which will determine the f

oppose the move are saying it would only fuel the conflict this is russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov and u.s. secretary of state john kerry met in paris to organize syrian peace talks right live now to our teams in reno who is in a paris it may not take us through the developments all over the e.u. ben being lifted. well of course you can say that it was a win for france and the u.k. have been pushing for a lifting of the arms embargo on syria all along you have to know that at the same time all other sanctions particularly the economic ones remain in place and that means that every individual european state will have to decide whether or not they want to proceed with this shipment of arms to syria and whether or not they want to do it at all i would have a hague over it he said that it's they only way that the u.k. sees that they are the lifting of the arms embargo is the only way that he believes good is the possibility to lift to end the crisis which has been ripping syria apart for more than two years at this point has that we have to remember that even the most of the e.u. count

unclear who can represent it as a whole at this conference or secondly according to a foreign minister lavrov it will be nice to see all the regional players there taking port including iran and saudi arabia which make problems with washington prior to meeting with the moon in his interview said that if the syrian authorities are ready to take part in this event then the rebels are still making preconditions. that will play in contrast to the syrian government which has responded quite positively to the russian american initiative the opposition zones it was quite they they said that they welcome any initiatives that will help stop the violence but before that assad must go reiterating their stance which has been the cause of the deadlock for many months. when you visit the source he continues this diplomatic marathon that's been happening recently russia was earlier visited by u.s. secretary of state to the prime ministers of great britain israel and other officials with syria of course dominating the talks however some problems that still remain for instance with the united states one john

paris and their efforts were directed at a peaceful resolution of the conflict john kerry and sergey lavrov have agreed that they will exert pressure on different sides of the conflict that is moscow will work with the syrian government whereas the u.s. will try and make sure that the syrian opposition also attends the geneva peace conference which is due to take place sometime next month of course even though the peace conference efforts are continuing we have to understand that this listing off the ban on arms embargo to syria is opening an entirely new phase in the syrian conflict it could be spelling out a potential disaster which will only intensify further bloodshed in syria. russia's can do. the ease decision to drop the syria arms embargo as counterproductive towards finding a diplomatic solution russia's foreign minister says governments are banned by international law from supplying weapons to non governmental organizations like the rebels moscow's decided to go ahead and provide air defense missiles to the syrian state calling it a balance designed to deter foreign intervention i

will work closely with russia and the bloodshed in syria kerry and foreign minister sergei lavrov and sergey lavrov underscored their commitment to the communique signed in june last year which calls for a transitional government to be established in syria that includes both sides but how can the international community get to the point if european union members with the support of the us are now considering to actually flood syria with even more arms experts believe that our being the syrian rebels will ignite an arms race in that country and so far according to the un the conflict there has claimed the lives of more than eighty thousand people and if more weapons flow into the country to arm the syrian rebels. crisis because of it could of course be exacerbated even further meanwhile the syrian opposition has let along a fresh line leading rebel factions inside a conference don't have slammed the exiled umbrella group told the syrian national coalition for failing to represent the revolution and the aston see itself meeting in turkey has still not the sign of whether it will go to g

but we return to our top story where russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov and the u.s. secretary of state john kerry will meet in paris later on to prepare a conference on syria which is planned for next month we can talk more about this with artie's tom. the u.s. and russia have had very cliched differences haven't they on the issue in the past with in particular washington in the past expressing vocal support for the syrian opposition do you think that in any way will hamper today's talks and any hope for progress. hi there andy yes the two foreign minister sergei lavrov and john kerry meeting in private today in paris the chief discussion. that we know about will be syria all about syria this discussion however u.s. officials who wanted to remain anonymous said that this discussion would continue discussion held by kerry and lover of when kerry visited moscow on may the seventh that point there were many issues on the table at this point the real headline issue for them for them is syria and focusing a lot on this conference in geneva planned in june international co

held by the end of this month and back then john kerry heard from russian foreign minister sergey lavrov that there were clear signs that the syrian government was ready to take part in this in this conference to have to sit at the same negotiation table with the syrian opposition and it was the syrian opposition which created problems and uncertainty whether they would be actually willing to take part in this press conference moreover in moscow john kerry said that the use the possible the possible arming of syrian rebels by washington would only be considered a substantial proof of the chemical weapons used by the syrian governmental troops would be found now two weeks on the rhetoric has changed and it's likely to create a feeling in moscow that the u.s. top diplomat and top diplomat is playing somewhat of mind games we are waiting for some reaction coming from the foreign ministry from the russian foreign ministry but we do know that the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov had a conversation with john kerry over the phone today discussing the possibilities of this conference the b

russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov as well as the secretary of state john kerry met in paris to discuss. the implementation of the peace process in the geneva conference on peace what was the concept in syria which is to take place next month bowles to carry a lover off have agreed that it is very important to work together in order to bring the the opposition the syrian opposition as well as the syrian government to to the table and have them figure out a way to bring about a the ended to the bloody two two year long conflict that's going on in syria at the moment. the u.k. aid agency oxfam has warned of devastating consequences if more arms are sent into syria britain however believes arming the rebels would complement rather than work against the peace process claiming it would strengthen the opposition's hand in negotiations with assad and to war activists rishon backers says of the arms embargo never stop the western supporters of the opposition. the arms embargo is a bit of a fiction anyway they aren't supporting into the opposition in syria they're for coming from qatar a

kerry and lavrov have been trying to arrange a peace conference in june in geneva to try and get bashar al assad's government and syrian rebel groups to sit down around the same table it is their second meeting following on from one to three weeks earlier in moscow in principle both groups have agreed to come to this peace conference but there may be problems there are rifts amongst the syrian rebel movement and the central rebel demands that bashar al assad step down may create a deadlock both saudi arabia and iran have also been asked to attend this conference by russia france has voiced concerns about iran attending there have been major differences between the u.s. and russia u.s. congress committee has voted in favor of proposed legislation that if it was passed on the long road through congress would allow the u.s. to supply weapons to syrian rebel groups the e.u. group of foreign ministers is also meeting to discuss a proposal by the u.k. and france to possibly lift the e.u. use them bargo of weapons supplies to syria also would have been recent media reports that s three hundred

members apollo's and which expires on friday this as russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov and the u.s. secretary of state john kerry also meet in paris to prepare a peace conference on syria. has the details. it's not a united front in fact differences seem to be at the center of this entire meeting happening today in brussels centering on syria we have the u.k. and france who are aggressively pushing for a partial lifting of the go on syria in order to send arms to the rebels the u.k. a foreign secretary william hague is trying to get the other e.u. members to agree with him that arming the a moderate arm of the so-called moderate rebels in syria also france's leaders have been particularly aggressive in trying to lobby the other leaders to be on board in fact today. leading newspaper also published a report saying that serious forces loyal to bashar al assad had used chemical weapons because one of the reporters had experience effects of it critics would certainly point out that the timing of the publication especially since leaders are to make a decision today now on the other

them and to prevent the growth of violent extremism so i strongly support the conference that mr lavrovfor mr kerry agreed this week to deliver a political solution a solution which has a transitional government based on the consent of the syrian people as a whole so clearly the events of the of this week have given us a clear indication that there may be interesting things to come in terms of the syrian conflict and this conference can actually produce something of a peaceful solution now as sharif pakistan's former prime minister is claiming victory in the country's a storage general election which will mark the first transition between two civilian governments this is supporters of his rival imran khan took to the streets to protest the out official results the election campaign has been the bloodiest in the country's history with more than one hundred thirty people dead in the last month including dozens on a voting day artie's lucy caffein of has more from islamabad. despite the threat of violence pakistanis came out in record numbers to vote in the election which will determine th

bring together all sides of the syrian conflict to the table it does seem like john kerry and sergey lavrov have agreed that they will exert pressure on different sides of the conflict that is moscow will work with the syrian government whereas the u.s. will try and make sure that the syrian opposition also attends the geneva peace conference which is due to take place sometime next month most go also wants to see so-called third parties participating in the peace talks and by the third parties they're talking about countries like qatar and iran who are not directly involved in any sort of diplomatic resolution of the conflict but are strongly expressing their. and and this syrian crisis of course even though the peace conference efforts are continuing we have to understand that. lifting up the ban on arms embargo to syria is opening and inspiring you say is in the syrian conflict it could be spelling out a potential disaster which will only intensify further bloodshed in syria russia has slammed the e.u.'s decision to drop the syria arms embargo as counterproductive towards finding a diplo

them and to prevent the growth of violent extremism so i strongly support the conference that mr lavrov for mr kerry agreed this week to deliver a political solution a solution which has a transitional government based on the consent of the syrian people as a whole so clearly the events of the of this past week have given us a clear indication that there may be interesting things to come in terms of the syrian conflict and this conference can actually produce something of a peaceful solution to the syrian conflict now he has been pakistan's prime minister twice and was ousted fourteen years ago in a military coup but now washer is claiming an early victory in the country's general election it's also the country's first democratic transition between civilian governments counting still underway the details now from our. despite the threat of violence pakistanis came out in record numbers to vote in the election which will determine the fate of the country for the next five years and as the votes are counted the man poised to come out at the very top is not sharif and his party fourteen ye

militants as well as a political crisis for the last couple of years now now the french foreign minister lavrov fabulous' had said that the aim of today is to raise some one point nine a billion euros a to give to the country in what he calls a quote unquote an effort to build democracy dialogue and development. now we know that france has been very much involved in the country especially in the beginning of the year when it launched a military operation into the country a saying that they were there to fight off islamist militants away from key cities now france is also in the middle of withdrawing some four thousand troops from the country wherever it does plan to keep about a thousand troops and says in what is seen as a long term a kind of posting in the country would this is in contrast to what has been told to the french people in the beginning who had given support to this military operation they were told that it was going to be a short of a kind of operation however we have been speaking to some experts who are very familiar with counterinsurgency efforts and have had firsthand experie