UN Looks at Putin, Erdogan Talking About Syria With Great Interest - de Mistura

The United Nations is closely following the Syria discussions between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Thursday.

GENEVA (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, following a meeting with Erdogan, Putin said that Russia and Turkey are determined to find a mutually-acceptable solution to the conflict in Syria.

"We have been always looking forward to all members of the ISSG [International Syrian Support Group] to have a cooperative attitude among them in order to reach a formula that can be implemented in Syria. So seeing the Turkish president and the Russian president talking about Syria and apparently coming up with some type of coordination on agreement is certainly something that we are looking with a great interest at," de Mistura told reporters.

The envoy also noted that the United Nations is still determined to hold the next round of intra-Syrian talks before the end of August, adding that that there should be no preconditions for the talks.

"We need a target timing, and the target timing is still towards the end of August," de Mistura told reporters, adding that "while it is a target date, there is and there should be no preconditions."

It is vital as those who do not want the intra-Syrian talks to happen may use any possible preconditions to obstruct the holding of the talks, he emphasized.