Updated 4:58 p.m. Moscow time
GENEVA, October 10 (RIA Novosti) – UN and Arab League special representative for Syria Staffan de Mistura confirmed Friday his plans to visit Moscow for consultations on the Syrian crisis in the coming month.
“I need to maintain contact with the Russian colleagues, because they are very helpful. We will have a bilateral meeting in Moscow in the coming month,” he told RIA Novosti.
Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told RIA Novosti Wednesday that the diplomat's visit is expected by the end of October.
Italian-Swedish diplomat de Mistura was appointed UN envoy on Syria in July, replacing Lakhdar Brahimi who resigned in May. According to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, de Mistura "brings to the position decades of experience with the United Nations in conflict-affected areas," including Somalia, the Middle East, the Balkans, Nepal, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Anti-government protests broke out in Syria in March 2011 and sparked an increasingly bloody civil war in the country.
According to UN estimates, the conflict has claimed the lives of more than 191,000 people over a three-year period, forcing almost 3 million Syrians to flee the country.
Syria is also suffering from the advance of the Islamic State (IS), an extremist group that has been fighting the country's government since 2012.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that only joint efforts of the international community, including the major global powers, can pave the way to defeating the IS.
