Trump to meet Russia's Lavrov on Syria in surprise talks

US President Donald Trump will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the White House on Wednesday to discuss Syria and a wide range of international issues, a senior US official said.

It will be the highest-level contact between Trump and the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin since Trump took office on 20 January.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on the agenda would be Syria as well as US-Russian relations and other global issues.

Relations deteriorated between the United States and Russia after US air strikes against a Syrian airfield in response to a chemical weapons attack that Washington blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Russian ally.

While the meeting, confirmed by the White House late Tuesday, is expected to focus on Syria, it comes just a day after the president stunned Washington by firing James Comey as director of the FBI amid an investigation into whether Trump campaign aides colluded with Russia to sway the November elections.

FBI uproar

The sacking prompted angry Democrats to call for the Russia probe to be placed in the hands an independent prosecutor or commission.

The uproar seemed certain to complicate Lavrov's mission in search of US support for a Russian plan to create safe zones in Syria.

He first holds talks with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and then goes on to the White House to meet Trump. 

Lavrov, who last set foot in Washington in August 2013, would be the highest ranking Russian official to meet with Trump since he took office.

Relations between the two former Cold War foes soured under former president Barack Obama over Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its unyielding support for Assad.

Since March 2011 the Syrian conflict has caused more than 320,000 deaths and forced millions of refugees to flee. Neither Washington, which backs the opposition, nor Moscow, a longtime ally of the Syrian regime, have managed to find to a solution to the conflict.

Since the end of Obama's presidency, the United States has gradually withdrawn from the diplomatic process, leaving Russia to take the lead.

The US was not part of a deal by government backers Russia and Iran, and rebel supporter Turkey, signed last Thursday in the Kazakh capital Astana on establishing safe zones in Syria.

'De-escalation zones'

The agreement calls for the creation of four "de-escalation zones" to shore up a ceasefire, ban flights and allow for deliveries of humanitarian aid.

Washington has given the deal a sceptical welcome, citing concerns about Iran's role as a guarantor even as it expressed hope the agreement could set the stage for a later settlement.

"We will look at the proposal, see if it can work," said Pentagon chief Jim Mattis on Monday.

'We will look at the proposal, see if it can work'

- Jim Mattis, Pentagon chief

Several ceasefires have been agreed on since Syria's conflict broke out in 2011, but they have failed to permanently stem the fighting.

Over the past six years Moscow and Washington have sparred multiple times over the conflict in Syria, especially concerning Assad's fate.

Both countries have recently indicated that relations under Trump have never been so bad.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday that Moscow expected "above all coming to a common understanding on the need for de-escalation in Syria."

'Common position'

"If we manage to find... a common position with the United States on this issue, it will be the most important result," he said, quoted by the state news agency Interfax.

The US State Department said that "on Syria, the secretary intends to discuss efforts to de-escalate violence, provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people, and set the stage for a political settlement of the conflict."

After talks on Wednesday, Tillerson and Trump will again meet on Thursday in Fairbanks, Alaska for the Arctic Council meeting, an intergovernmental forum for cooperation on the environment, oil and mining, shipping, fisheries and tourism. It brings together the eight countries bordering the Arctic Ocean - Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark, the US, Iceland, Sweden and Finland.

Tillerson and Lavrov's meeting in Alaska comes 150 years after Washington purchased the US state from Moscow.