MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Sunday, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura arrived in Damascus for a working visit.
“Muallem confirmed the position of the Syrian authorities in regard to the political solution of the crisis and that they will adhere to holding intra-Syrian dialogue without any preconditions,” SANA news agency quoted Muallem as saying.
De Mistura said earlier that he planned to visit Damascus and Tehran ahead of the start of a new round of Syrian peace talks.
The previous round of Syrian talks in Geneva finished on March 24. The round saw all delegations submit their settlement proposals to Syrian Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, who then produced a final paper with points of convergence between the parties.
The peace talks followed a Russian-US-brokered ceasefire deal reached on February 27. On March 14, Putin ordered Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to start withdrawing most of Russia's military contingent from Syria, which had been conducting strikes against terrorist targets since late September.
