Updated 9:12 p.m. Moscow Time
UNITED NATIONS, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - The Syrian government is striving for a political solution of the crisis in the war-torn country through the dialogue with opposition that upholds fighting terrorism as its priority and encourages reconciliation, Foreign Minister Walid Moualem said Monday.
"We are open to a political solution in Syria, with a real opposition that seeks the prosperity, stability and security of Syria, an opposition that does not depend on the outside and does not speak on behalf of that outside," Moualem told a plenary session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
"An opposition that has a impact on the Syrian territory, and has deep roots inside Syria, not in hotels and Western capitals," he added.
The United States and some Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been accused of supporting the Syrian opposition since the start of the conflict in 2011.
The Syrian Army has been fighting multiple groups of rebels, including foreign contractors, since March 2011. According to the United Nations, the civil war in Syria has claimed more than 191,000 lives while more than three million Syrians have become refugees and over half of the country’s population has been internally displaced since the beginning of the conflict.
Peace talks between the Syrian regime and the opposition broke down in February without tangible results after three weeks of intense negotiations. No date has been set to resume discussions in the near future.
