DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko wrote a letter addressed to Syrian People's Council Speaker Mohammad Laham, which was handed to the recipient by a group of Russian parliamentarians currently visiting the Syrian capital on Sunday.
"Today, with the Russian Aerospace Forces operation having created foundations for a political and diplomatic settlement of the crisis, the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva can genuinely assist toward starting a dialogue," Matvienko wrote.
The previous round of Syrian talks in Geneva finished on March 24. The round saw all delegations submit their settlement proposals to Syrian Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, who then produced a final paper with points of convergence between the parties.
The peace talks followed a Russian-US-brokered ceasefire deal reached on February 27. On March 14, Putin ordered Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to start withdrawing most of Russia's military contingent from Syria, which had been conducting strikes against terrorist targets since late September.
