Qatar Hopes to Overcome Differences on Syrian Crisis With Russia Soon

In general, Qatar and Russia share similar views on the Syrian crisis settlement, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said Saturday, expressing hope that the countries overcome several differences on the issue soon.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Syrian conflict has been discussed at parallel talks in the Swiss city of Geneva and the Kazakh capital of Astana.

The fifth round of the UN-mediated Geneva negotiations on Syrian reconciliation concluded on March 31 without a breakthrough.

Astana provides a separate platform for Syrian peace talks, with three rounds of negotiations since the beginning of the year.

"Speaking of the Syrian problem, we agree on many issues, the most important of which – a necessity to respect the territorial integrity of the country and to put an end to suffering of the Syrian people, " Al-Thani said after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

"We have certain differences between each other on how to achieve these goals, but I hope that through constructive dialogue we will manage to work through the contradictions and we will achieve security and stability in Syria soon," the Qatari minister added.

Russia is cooperating with Qatar on the number of issues including fighting against terrorism, settlement of the Syrian conflict as well as stabilizing oil prices.