Russia: Syria meeting aims to isolate Nusra extremists

Russia’s U.N. ambassador says a key aim of a high-level meeting on Syria is to get countries that support moderate opposition groups to use their influence to work for a new cease-fire.

Vitaly Churkin said Friday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be joined in Lausanne, Switzerland by ministers from several countries that are “really, really, really influential” with opposition fighters.

He named Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Reports from the region said Iran and Qatar will also attend the meeting on Saturday.

Lavrov has said a major reason the Sept. 9 cease-fire agreement that he reached with Kerry failed was the inability of those against Syria’s government to separate moderate opposition groups from the Nusra Front and Islamic State “terrorist” groups.