Safadi participates in Syria talks in Saudi Arabia

AMMAN — Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi will participate in the Riyadh ministerial meeting on Syria, which followed the Aqaba meetings in December.

Saudi Arabia is hosting foreign ministers from the Middle East and Europe on Sunday for talks on Syria's transition after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Al Assad, a Saudi official told AFP. 

"Tomorrow there will be two meetings. The first one is amongst the Arab states. The second one will include Arab states and other countries," including France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Turkey and Spain, the official said on Saturday. 

The talks will focus "on Syria in general" including support for the new administration and the possible lifting of sanctions, the official said on condition of anonymity. 

US Under Secretary of State John Bass is also set to attend what the State Department described in a statement as "a Saudi-hosted multilateral meeting of senior government officials from the region and global partners to coordinate international support for the Syrian people". 

Bass is coming from Turkey where he held talks on Syria with senior officials, the statement said. 

The Turkish and German foreign ministers are among the other officials who had confirmed their attendance as of Saturday evening. 

The meeting is a continuation of talks on post-Assad Syria held last month in Jordan, the Saudi official said. 

Western powers, including the United States and the European Union, slapped sanctions on Assad's government over his brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011 that triggered civil war.

More than 13 years of conflict in Syria have killed more than half a million people, ravaged the economy, and pushed millions to flee their homes, including to Europe. 

The transitional government in Damascus has been lobbying to have sanctions lifted.