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New UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen to hold meetings in Moscow next week

Pedersen went to the Syrian capital on his first visit on January 15

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. New UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen will come to Moscow the next week, where he will hold a number of meetings, Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov said.

"The next week there will be meetings with new Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General [Geir] Pedersen in Moscow," he said. "People directly engaged in the Syrian settlement will meet with him, including Russian Special Presidential Representative for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin. There will be probably meetings with him in some departments."

Ushakov did not specify whether the UN special envoy for Syria may meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Pedersen, who went to the Syrian capital on his first visit on January 15, replaced UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, who occupied this position for more than four years. He used to be Norway’s permanent representative to the UN in 2012-2017 and worked as an ambassador in Beijing. In the Middle East he performed the mission of the UN Special Envoy for Lebanon in 2005-2008 and occupied the position of Norway’s representative in Palestine in 1998-2003.

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