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Syrian peace talks in Geneva shouldn’t be delayed, Russian official says

3 February 2017 17:53 (UTC+04:00)
Syrian peace talks in Geneva shouldn’t be delayed, Russian official says

By Kamila Aliyeva

Moscow considers unacceptable to postpone the talks on Syria in Geneva, said the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

“For our part, we fully support the strong commitment of Staffan de Mistura for an early resumption of Intra-Syrian contacts in Geneva,” RIA Novosti quoted Zakharova as saying at a briefing on Friday adding that any attempts to tighten or postpone the talks are unacceptable.

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura said that during this meeting the Syrian government will have an opportunity to engage in serious negotiations on the issue and opposition groups, in their turn, will be given a chance to come to the Geneva talks as one unified group.

The resumption of peace talks under the auspices of the UN was rescheduled from the beginning of the month to February 20. Initially, the talks were slated for February 8.

The Astana talks on Syrian settlement were brokered by Russia, Turkey, and Iran and took place in the Kazakh capital on January 23-24. They marked the first time since the beginning of Syrian civil war in 2011 when the government of Syria and the armed opposition sat together at the negotiations table.

Following the Astana talks, Russia, Iran, and Turkey agreed to create a trilateral mechanism to monitor the Syrian ceasefire.

Representatives of Russian delegation who took part in Astana talks presented a draft Constitution to the representatives of the armed opposition of Syria.

As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov previously noted, Russia thus opened the discussion on the content of the basic law, which is essential for stabilization of the situation in the country.

Armed conflict continues in Syria since March 2011. Government troops are confronted by militants of different armed rebel groups. Russia has begun airstrikes on terrorist facilities in Syria since 30 September 2015. The Russian military involvement follows an official request from President Bashar Assad to President Vladimir Putin.

The UN has repeatedly tried and failed to end the Syrian conflict, which has killed 300,000 and displaced 11 million since it began five years ago.

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