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| Russia says international meeting for Syria cease-fire cancelled | Russia says international meeting for Syria cease-fire cancelled |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| BEIRUT — A meeting of the international coordinating group charged with implementing a cease-fire in Syria was cancelled Friday, Russia's foreign ministry said, delaying any reduction of hostilities and raising further questions about the workability of the truce. | BEIRUT — A meeting of the international coordinating group charged with implementing a cease-fire in Syria was cancelled Friday, Russia's foreign ministry said, delaying any reduction of hostilities and raising further questions about the workability of the truce. |
| The coordinating group was due to convene in Geneva Friday but called off the meeting, the office of Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. She was not immediately available to comment on why the meeting had been cancelled. | The coordinating group was due to convene in Geneva Friday but called off the meeting, the office of Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. She was not immediately available to comment on why the meeting had been cancelled. |
| The cancellation signals another setback for international efforts to broker an end to a civil war that has killed 250,000 people, displaced millions and turned into a dangerous proxy conflict for world powers. | |
| However, U.S. and Russian military officials did hold an unannounced bilateral meeting Friday morning, the Reuters news agency reported from Geneva. | |
| The bilateral meeting was aimed at narrowing positions between the two powers — an attempt for a joint view, Reuters reported. No other details on the bilateral meeting were given. | |
| The United States and Russia, which back opposing sides in the five-year-old Syrian conflict, backed a tentative agreement in Munich last week to reach a cease-fire and deliver humanitarian aid to besieged Syrians. | |
| That agreement, described by U.S. officials as a last-ditch push for peace, followed the collapse earlier this month of U.N.-supported peace talks because of a sweeping offensive in northern Syria by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. | |
| Government forces have made sweeping advances against rebels around the strategic city of Aleppo with the help of Iranian-led militiamen and airstrikes from Russia, an ally of the Syrian leader that intervened in the conflict on his behalf in September. | |
| Russian airstrikes have since pulverized rebel groups and helped turn the tide of the civil war. | Russian airstrikes have since pulverized rebel groups and helped turn the tide of the civil war. |
| Birnbaum reported from Moscow. Daniela Deane contributed from London. |