More Work Needed Before Syria's Warring Parties Can Commence Geneva-3 Talks

Syrian government and opposition factions need to reach common ground on a reconciliation process in the framework of the Moscow talks before moving on to meetings in the Geneva-3 format, Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoubi told Sputnik Arabic on Thursday.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik) – Syria's warring parties have met twice over the last three years at UN-backed Geneva conferences and twice in the Russian capital of Moscow. Syria's Ambassador to Russia Riad Haddad told RIA Novosti earlier that Damascus hoped to hold another round of intra-Syrian talks in Moscow by the end of this year.

"Success of Geneva-3 requires talks within the Moscow-3 framework to be finalized first," the minister asserted.

"Syria is, of course, closer to holding Moscow-3 talks…because we have the experience of Moscow-2 negotiations where we were able to move forward on some of the issues on the agenda. These results showed that a dialogue is up and it has a positive effect," Zoubi said.

Last week, Syrian President Bashar Assad said that Moscow-3 was essential for the success of international talks on Syrian political settlement in Geneva, Switzerland. An ongoing four-year civil war in the country has killed over 250,000 people and displaced over 11 million.