I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met late on Tuesday for a discussion focused on the war in Syria and plans for an international peace conference, a senior State Department official said.
Kerry updated his Russian counterpart on his discussions with the Syrian rebels and officials from countries involved in the talks and his plans to participate in a meeting in Jordan next week ahead of the international conference, a senior State Department official said.
Russia has been a staunch ally of Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...
, blocking new sanctions against Syria at the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
and supplying the government with arms.
Kerry had said earlier on Tuesday he expected the proposed peace conference to be held in early June, and denied reports that the Damascus government did not plan to attend.
Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi said earlier in the day that Assad's government, fighting an insurgency that threatens to draw in Syria's neighbours, wanted specifics on such a conference before it decides whether to be part of it.
Kerry is visiting Sweden for a meeting of the Arctic Council, a grouping of eight nations with Arctic territory.
Kerry had said earlier the exact timing of the Syria peace negotiations was up to the United Nations, but that he expected it would take place in early June, noting that a great deal of work had already taken place.