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Kerry to meet with top Russian, Iranian envoys over Ukraine, nuclear talks

Xinhua, February 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Russian and Iranian counterparts in Switzerland next week over the situation in eastern Ukraine and nuclear talks with Tehran, the State Department said on Thursday.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki told reporters that Kerry, who is scheduled to travel to Geneva next Monday, will discuss Ukraine and other "regional issues of common interest" with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

She said the top American envoy will then go to another Swiss city of Montreux for meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad- Javad Zarif as part of the broad efforts by the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China plus Germany, a group known as the P5+1, to negotiate a comprehensive deal over Tehran's controversial nuclear program by the end of June.

The Ukrainian military on Thursday started to withdraw its heavy weapons from the front line, as the independence-seeking rebels did two days ago in the country's east under a new cease- fire deal reached in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Feb. 12 and meant to take effect on Feb. 15.

The cease-fire and the withdrawal of heavy weapons, central parts of the deal seeking to bring peace to Ukraine's east, have been delayed by continued fighting, though the terms of the pact have largely been carried out over the past two days.

Washington and its Western allies have threatened new sanctions on Moscow over its violation of the Minsk deal.

Kerry met early Thursday with visiting Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, whose country took over the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a group serving as a mediator and observer of the implementation of the Minsk accord.

Tehran had more bilats with Washington days ago in Geneva, with Kerry and Zarif having face-to-face meetings as well, in parallel with talks with the P5+1 group, as all sides are seeking to map out the outlines of the accord by the end of March. Endite