Damascus Ready to Participate in Future Rounds of Syria Talks in Moscow

Syrian government is ready to participate in the second round of Intra-Syria talks in Moscow, according to the statement of Russian Foreign Ministry.

MOSCOW, January 30 (Sputnik) — The Syrian government expressed its readiness to take part in further rounds of Syria talks in Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.

"The readiness of Damascus to take part in next rounds of the dialogue in Moscow has been confirmed," the ministry said.

On Thursday, the head of the Syrian governmental delegation, Bashar Ja'afari, stated that his party wished to hold the next meeting with the opposition in Moscow, with the final consultative meeting to take place in Damascus.

The governmental delegation agrees with Russia that the talks have to continue, but organizing them will take time, Ja'afari stated.

Intra-Syria talks took place in Moscow on January 26-29. Government officials, representatives of the opposition parties and the UN special envoy for Syria took part in the negotiations.

The Moscow talks are the first to focus on Syrian reconciliation since January 2014. At that time, the second round of a UN-backed conference on Syria was held in Geneva, Switzerland, but failed to yield significant results. The first round took place in June 2012.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011. The country's army is fighting several opposition and rebel groups. Syria's internal conflict has killed 200,000 people so far, according to UN estimates.