In Munich, twenty countries and international organizations held Syrian peace talks. At the meeting, the counties agreed on a cessation of hostilities that will come into force in Syria within a week. However, the talks concerning political settlement can be renewed by the end of the month.
Germany’s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that in the nearest future, the US and Russia will have talks on coordination of military actions in Syria. Besides, he noted that during the meeting, it was decided to reduce levels of violence in Syria that is expected to lead to a ceasefire.
Even before the meeting, its members had already offered three dates of the beginning of truce: February 15th, February 23rd, and March 1st. Most participants of the talks suppose that the truce should be achieved as soon as possible. Moreover, delivery of humanitarian aid and the duration of the negations depend on this decision.
“The goal of resuming the negotiation process, which was suspended in an atmosphere where a part of the Syrian opposition took a completely unconstructive position and tried to put forward preconditions, was stressed. We noted that the talks must be resumed as soon as possible without any ultimatums or preconditions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
At the same time, Sergey Lavrov did not support the idea to start ground operations in Syria. He supposes that it can provoke another conflict. Sergey Lavrov also noted that the current situation should be solved by the Syrians. However, Western countries and their partners from the Middle East insist on the resignation of President Assad.
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