* Istanbul talks scheduled amid escalating Syria crisis
* Clinton also to visit Nigeria, Ghana, Benin
LILONGWE Aug 5 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary State of State
Hillary Clinton will travel to Istanbul next week to hold talks
with the Turkish government on the crisis in Syria, a State
Department spokeswoman said on Sunday.
“Secretary Clinton goes to Istanbul for bilateral
consultations with the Turkish government on Syria as well as to
cover other timely issues,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in
a statement sent to reporters during a visit by Clinton to the
southern African nation of Malawi.
Clinton’s planned talks in Istanbul on Aug. 11 will form
part of renewed international efforts to tackle the escalating
crisis in Syria, where forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad
are fighting to put down a rebel uprising.
Prospects over the possibility of a negotiated solution have
dimmed since United Nations peace envoy Kofi Annan resigned this
week complaining of paralysis in the U.N. Security Council over
the Syria peace efforts.
Nuland also announced that Clinton, whose current Africa
tour will take her to South Africa later on Sunday, would also
be visiting Nigeria, Ghana and Benin next week on her way to the
Istanbul talks.
In Ghana, she was expected to attend the funeral of
President John Atta Mills, who died suddenly last month after an
illness.
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