Russian FM, UN envoy call for speeding up peace talks over Syria

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura on Thursday agreed that consultation over the Syrian issue should be accelerated.

The parties had a routine meeting in Moscow and exchanged views on a whole range of issues related to the settlement of the Syrian crisis, according to a statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Xinhua reported.

The special envoy praised Russia's actions aimed at maintaining the ceasefire regime in Syria, including under the memorandum on the creation of de-escalation zones signed on May 4.

Lavrov and de Mistura stressed the importance of consolidating the positive results achieved during the intra-Syrian consultations in Geneva under the auspices of the United Nations, including with regard to constitutional reform.

In this context, they underlined the need to keep up and speed up the course of negotiations with their comprehensive nature, as well as the need to focus on the fight against terrorism.

--IANS

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