Trump administration not sending a delegation to Syria peace talks

The Trump administration will not send a delegation to next week’s Syrian peace talks, sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran, because of the “immediate demands of the transition,” the State Department said Saturday.

Russia’s ambassador to the United States had personally invited President Trump’s national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, to the meeting, scheduled to begin Monday in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana. The Obama administration was not invited.

“The United States is committed to a political resolution to the Syrian crisis through a Syrian-owned process, which can bring about a more representative, peaceful, and united Syria,” acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement. It said that the U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan would attend as an observer.