MOSCOW, (Sputnik) — UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura praised January's negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition delegations that were held in Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
"In this context, the special envoy praised the consultative meeting between representatives of Syrian Government and opposition that took place January 26-29 in Moscow," the Foreign Ministry said, following a meeting of Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and de Mistura in Munich.
The two sides discussed promotion of implementing de Mistura's plan for local ceasefires, as well as issues of consolidating efforts in the fight against the terror threat in the country, the ministry said.
The Moscow negotiations were the first ones to focus on Syrian reconciliation since January 2014, when a UN-backed conference on the Syrian conflict was held in Geneva, Switzerland, failing to yield significant results.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011. The state's army is involved in fighting several opposition and rebel groups. According to UN estimates, the internal conflict has claimed lives of about 200,000 people.
