A Syrian regime team held closed-door consultations in Moscow today amid burgeoning Russian efforts to flex its diplomatic muscle and help set up elusive peace talks with the opposition.
President Bashar al-Assad's envoys entered Moscow's Stalin-era foreign ministry skyscraper just as UN chief Ban Ki-moon disclosed in Vilnius that he hoped to convene the so-called Geneva II conference in mid-December.
The latest push for peace came amid uninterrupted fighting that saw a top rebel commander die of wounds suffered in a regime air strike and continuing army advances in the flashpoint northern city of Aleppo.
The consultations in Moscow between the Syrian delegation and Russian Deputy Foreign Ministers Gennady Gatilov and Mikhail Bogdanov came just days after President Vladimir Putin held his first telephone talks with Assad in more than two years.
The Kremlin said that Putin today also held "detailed" discussions about Syrian peace initiatives with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Russia has been one of the Syrian regime's most important allies by providing it with backing at the United Nations and supplying its forces with heavy weapons throughout the 32-month war.
Yet Moscow has also assumed an increasingly prominent role in diplomatic negotiations after successfully averting US air strikes in September by having Assad agree to a Russia-US plan to strip him of chemical arms.
The Russian foreign ministry did not comment on the outcome of today's meeting with Assad's envoys and the Syrian team left the building without speaking to the press.
But a diplomatic source in Moscow said the Syrian regime delegation would continue their discussions tomorrow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The Syrian opposition said Russia had also invited National Coalition president Ahmed Jarba for a three-day visit starting today that would coincide with the regime officials' stay.
Russia hopes to arrange an informal meeting between the two sides that could help shape the Geneva II talks.
Jarba's adviser Munzer Aqbiq told AFP yesterday that the opposition head could not visit Moscow today due to "pre-set official commitments".
Lavrov for his part told reporters that Jarba was "still studying our invitation".
