MOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura is expected to visit Moscow next week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Friday.
"Next week, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will visit Russia," said Bogdanov, who is the Russian Presidential Envoy for the Middle East and Africa. "We will be holding intensive consultations with de Mistura on Astana (talks)."
"We will definitely discuss the issue [intra-Syria talks in Astana and Geneva]. We will focus on developments in and outside Syria, strengthening of the ceasefire and the fight against terrorism personified as the ISIS [so-called Islamic State] and Jabhat al-Nusra and certainly, ways to find a political solution on the basis of UN Security Council’s Resolution 2254."
"Our position is consistent and principal. We are ready to cooperate with all the sides, having in mind that Syria should be preserved as a united, sovereign and territorially integral state," Bogdanov said.
When asked by TASS about the timeframe for a next round of intra-Syrian talks in Geneva, the diplomat said that this issue would be on table of the talks with the UN envoy.
"De Mistura is coming in time. It is important to follow this sequence of steps: consultations with de Mistura, in parallel with working consultations with Turkey and Iraq and our work in Damascus [we hope that Turkish counterparts have intensive contacts with the armed opposition]. Jordan has useful contacts with opposition groups in Syria’s south. Later, there will be a meeting in Astana and finally, a next round of Geneva talks," Bogdanov said.