Syrian representatives to arrive in Moscow

MOSCOW, August 24. /TASS/. Moscow will become a site for discussion of the prospects of Syrian settlement these days again: a delegation of the Syrian government and opposition is arriving in the Russian capital on Monday. The group is led by Minister of State for National Reconciliation Affairs Ali Haidar. The delegates - Haidar and representatives of moderate opposition - will be received in the Russian Foreign Ministry by special representative of the president for the Middle East and African countries, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. Besides, as part of the trip, the Syrians are expected to attend meetings in both houses of Russia’s parliament - the Federation Council and the State Duma, the Council of Muftis of Russia, and hold a conversation with head of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Oriental Studies Institute Vitaly Naumkin, who was a moderator of two intra-Syrian meetings in Moscow in January and April 2015. According to UN statistics, fighting between Syrian government troops and militants has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced millions since its start in 2011. An international peace conference on Syria, dubbed Geneva-2, organized by Russia and the United States and designed to negotiate a solution to the Syrian crisis, held in January and February 2014, brought no particular progress. Read more