Paris to host Saudi, Qatar, UAE, Turkey FMs for Syria talks

PARIS - Agence France-Presse

A woman holds a placard during a demonstration calling on all rebel-factions to end the fight and stop the killings in Aleppo, in the town of Mesraba in the eastern Ghouta region, a rebel stronghold east of the Syrian capital Damascus, on May 3, 2016 - AFP photo

France will host talks next week with the Saudi, Qatari, Turkish and UAE foreign ministers on the breakdown in the Syrian peace process, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said May 4.

Other top diplomats from "countries that think negotiations should resume at all costs" may also attend the meeting on May 9, Le Foll said, without naming them.
 
He was speaking after a cabinet meeting in which French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was concerned over the breakdown in negotiations following a surge of violence in the northern city of Aleppo that has threatened a wider two-month ceasefire in the war-torn country.    

Ayrault voiced concern over the "halt in the negotiating process" after the violence in Aleppo, where fighting continued overnight, Le Foll said.
 
France supports "all initiatives to be taken towards a resumption of negotiations," he added.
 
Talks were set to take place late on May 4 in Berlin between Ayrault, his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura and Riad Hijab, coordinator for the opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC).
 
The UN Security Council was to convene late on May 4 in New York for an urgent meeting to discuss the Aleppo crisis demanded by Paris and London.