Paris to host Saudi, Qatar, UAE, Turkey FMs for Syria talks Monday

France will host talks next week with the Saudi, Qatari, Turkish and UAE foreign ministers on the breakdown in the Syrian peace process, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said Wednesday.

Other top diplomats from “countries that think negotiations should resume at all costs” may also attend the Monday meeting, Le Foll said, without naming them.

He was speaking after a cabinet meeting in which French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was concerned over the breakdown in negotiations following a surge of violence in the northern city of Aleppo that has threatened a wider two-month ceasefire in the war-torn country.

Ayrault voiced concern over the “halt in the negotiating process” after the violence in Aleppo, where fighting continued overnight, Le Foll said.

France supports “all initiatives to be taken towards a resumption of negotiations,” he added.

Talks were set to take place later Wednesday in Berlin between Ayrault, his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura and Riad Hijab, coordinator for the opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC).

The UN Security Council was to convene later Wednesday in New York for an urgent meeting to discuss the Aleppo crisis demanded by Paris and London.