MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem and UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura held a "useful" meeting in Damascus on Saturday, the United Nations said in a statement.
"The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Mr. Staffan de Mistura, had a useful meeting today in Damascus with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the Syrian Arab Republic, Mr. Walid Mouallem," the statement reads.
The UN diplomat is "looking forward to the active participation of relevant parties" in peace talks in Geneva on January 25, and will continue consultations in the region.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting against numerous opposition factions and extremist groups.
In December, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Syrian reconciliation, which reaffirmed the goals of the Vienna agreements to bring the entire spectrum of the political groups in the crisis-torn country to the negotiating table and stated that the next round of the UN-sponsored intra-Syrian talks would take place in January, 2016.
