The UN Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss the pause in Syrian peace talks. (File Photo)
The UN Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss the pause in Syrian peace talks that was called during a Russian-backed Syrian offensive on a key city.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura will report to ambassadors of the 15 Security Council members on the decision to suspend the talks in Geneva, just three days after they officially began, diplomats said.
The closed-door meeting was requested by Venezuela, which chairs the Security Council for the month of February.
De Mistura decided to suspend the peace talks until February 25, saying "more work" was needed to prepare all sides for the negotiations on ending Syria's five-year war.
The talks had been tipped as the most important push so far to end the conflict, which has killed more than 260,000 people and forced half the country's people from their homes since March 2011.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a Syria donors' conference in London that the "temporary pause shows just how deep and difficult the divisions are."
"The coming days should be used to get back to the table, not to secure more gains on the battlefield," he said.
The United States, France and Britain slammed Russia for providing air power to a Syrian army advance on the key city of Aleppo that has sent tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing.
Russia separately accused Turkey of preparing for an armed invasion of Syria.
Russia, the United States and other key countries involved in the Syria conflict are to meet in Munich on February 11 to chart a way forward for the peace talks.