Kerry, Lavrov to meet in Qatar today:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Qatar to discuss Iran, Syria, and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
The August 2 meeting will take place on the sidelines of Kerry's discussions with Gulf Arab foreign ministers, in which the U.S. secretary of state will try to ease Arab concerns about the nuclear deal agreed between world powers and Iran in July.
On the first leg of his Middle East tour, Kerry was in Cairo on August 1 to discuss the resumption of a U.S.-Egypt strategic dialogue that was suspended in 2009 amid political unrest in Egypt.
Aside from his talks with Kerry, Lavrov will meet with Qatari officials to discuss bilateral relations and international efforts to fight the Islamic State group. (AFP, Reuters)
We are now closing the live blog for today. Until we resume again tomorrow morning, you can keep up with all our ongoing Ukraine news coverage here.
The World Congress of Crimean Tatars kicked off to day and our news desk has this report:
Participants at the second World Congress of Crimean Tatars have condemned Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, as the gathering opened in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on August 1.
"The first condition in order to achieve world peace, and peace among the people of Crimea, is to end the occupation of our homeland," said Refat Chubarov, the chairman of the Mejlis, an assembly for Crimean Tatars.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Kimkin said the annexation of Crimea in March 2014 "is temporary-- because it is illegal."
Kimkin was attending the congress in a show of solidarity with the Crimean Tatar community.
He said Ukraine wouldn't have normal relations with Russia until Crimea was returned to Ukraine and the Tatars who call it home.
The 300,000-strong Muslim minority make up less than 15 percent of Crimea's population of 2 million.
They were overwhelmingly opposed to the annexation.
Some 200 Crimean Tatars from various countries were expected to attend the two-day event.
Russian authorities blocked two local Crimean Tatar leaders from leaving Crimea on July 28 which prevented them from attending the congress.
(Reuters, turkishweekly.net)