MOSCOW, October 30 (Sputnik) — Earlier on Friday, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura and top diplomats from the United States, Russia, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Lebanon and France met in Vienna to discuss the settlement of the Syrian civil war.
"This approach was the original position of Russia, but now the European Union is also inclining toward it. This makes it possible for the United Nations [envoy de Mistura] to also take a more certain position and move the focus on the negotiations," Konstantin Kosachev said.
The main problem in the Syrian settlement at the moment is determining the actual participants of future peace negotiations, Kosachev added.
According to the Russian lawmaker, Vienna talks participants still need to agree on what militant groups in the country should be considered as terrorists and which ones as moderate opposition factions.
Syria has been mired in a civil war since 2011, with government forces fighting on multiple fronts against opposition factions and extremist groups, including Islamic State.
Russia has been promoting a peaceful settlement of the Syrian conflict, hosting two rounds of intra-Syrian peace talks earlier in 2015 in an attempt to foster dialogue between the government and opposition factions.
