UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — The meeting was set to address the pause in Syrian peace talks after UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura suspended peace talks for three weeks on Wednesday.
"In the end it has to be a peaceful solution. That’s why we want to work with Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, with all of the region and global players in order to come together as we began to do in resolution 2254," Rycroft said ahead of Friday's UN Security Council meeting.
The intra-Syrian talks were stalled after the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee said that their preconditions for the talks, namely the provision of humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian towns and the immediate end to the airstrikes, had not been met.
Regarding Russia's military role in Syria, Rycroft stressed that effective cooperation entailed fighting the Daesh terrorist group.
"They need to do what they said in the first place, which was to be in Syria militarily in order to fight Daesh. If they would do that, than yes, we could be cooperating very effectively."
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the army loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting several opposition factions and militant organizations, including the Daesh, which is banned in Russia and a number of other countries.
Russia has been conducting air strikes against terrorist targets in Syria since September 30 at the request of Damascus.
