Moscow announced that it supports the continuation of Syria peace talks under the United Nations auspices, which would take place along-side separate, Russian-backed peace talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana. During a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura, the latter welcomed Russia’s support for the United Nations effort to bring about a political process to the Syrian conflict, while in turn declaring the support of the UN to the Russian backed talks in Astana, which de Mistura said brought about the vital element of a ceasefire that laid the groundwork to restarting the talks.
“We were looking forward – all of us – to come here to discuss exactly what you mentioned: how to make sure that the Astana initiative which we support, strongly support, because we feel that focusing on the cessation of hostilities is the beginning of everything related to any negotiation in Syria. And the proof is that to a large degree this is taking place at the moment. Secondly, that helps and is helping the holding of the Geneva talks which we are planning to have on the 23rd (February),” said de Mistura.
The nationwide cessation of hostilities that seems to hold in Syria, for the most part, has encouraged both opposition groups and the Assad regime to divert their attention from fighting each other to separately combating the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda linked groups. The United Nations, together with Moscow, Washington, European Union and other international powers, seek to end the conflict that is about to enter in March its sixth year, a bloody war that has claimed the lives of more than half a million people and created the worst humanitarian refugee crisis, since world war two.