Syria foreign minister to visit Russia on Friday: official

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem will on Friday visit Moscow ahead of the Geneva II peace talks on the Syrian conflict due to begin in Switzerland later this month, the Russian foreign ministry said.

Muallem will hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, a ministry spokesman told Russian news agencies on Monday without providing further details.

Earlier Monday Damascus’s ambassador to Moscow Riyad Haddad told the Interfax news agency that Muallem “will be in Moscow prior to Geneva II.” He did not specify a date.

The announcement came as Lavrov held talks in Paris with US Secretary of State John Kerry about the Swiss conference, a follow-up to July 2012 consultations that failed to put an end to the fighting in the battle-scarred country.

The conference, due to begin January 22 in the Swiss lakeside town of Montreux and continue two days later in Geneva, is aimed at engaging regime and opposition members in their first direct talks.

The July 2012 Geneva conference involving world powers but no Syrian regime or rebel officials concluded with an agreement that President Bashar al-Assad and his opponents should decide on a transitional government whose representatives suited all sides.

US officials interpreted the wording to mean that the deal excluded the possibility of Assad remaining in power.

But Russia, whose ties to Syria stretch back decades and involve weapons sales, insists that Assad cannot be forced to step down through outside pressure because he retains strong domestic support.