Top Russian, US and Saudi diplomats to meet in Qatar

A senior State Department official said that at the Qatar meeting Kerry, Jubeir and Lavrov “acknowledged the need for a political solution to the conflict and the important role to be played by opposition groups in reaching that solution”.

The Interfax news agency quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying Wednesday that a delegation of the Syrian National Coalition opposition group has been invited to visit Moscow next week.

REUTERS/Brendan SmialowskiRussia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (C) walks with others before a trilateral meeting in Doha, Qatar August 3, 2015.

Aljazeera reported John Kerry is heading to Egypt and Qatar to meet the foreign ministers of both countries, with a nuclear deal with Iran topping the agenda of the talks.

Lavrov extended the invitation, which Meshaal accepted, during a visit to Doha on Monday.

The two political figures also discussed a host of issues surrounding Palestine including the Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the occupied territories. The military is planning to add manned aircraft flights from there, said US officials. Russian Federation reiterated that diplomatic talks between Israel and the Palestinians must include Hamas. Moscow has shielded Assad’s regime from United Nations sanctions and continued to provide it with weapons during a civil war that has dragged on for more than four years, leaving at least 250,000 killed and turning more than 4 million people into refugees. Later in 2010, Meshaal met with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Syria. “We expect the same attitude when we are talking about the Hamas terrorism against Israel”, an Israeli Foreign Ministry said at the time.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2006 elections and Abbas’s Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank.