MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Sputnik that the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva are set to begin this month where Special UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will "formulate directions for further discussions."
"My suggestion and our group’s suggestion is that there should be a dialogue process which is the right format, and not the negotiation process in Geneva," Ahmad said.
"The dialogue process should be a national dialogue conference which can gather 1000 representatives of different Syrian groups and different Syrian parties, and associations of the civil society, as well as the government. We prefer to hold in Damascus…I don't see any kind of format which can be done by Mr. de Mistura and his team, and which can gather the different teams into one negotiating party and which can achieve the results which he is speaking about," Ahmad said.
De Mistura said at a final press conference after the conclusion of the talks that "there has been some progress at this round," and that ideas on political transition from all delegations to the talks were collected. On Tuesday, de Mistura said that the renewal of the Intra-Syrian talks hinges on Aleppo joining a ceasefire regime in Syria.