Special UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura supports conflict reconciliation efforts underway in Astana, Kazakhstan.

MOSCOW— Special UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Misturasaid at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday that he supports conflict reconciliation efforts underway in Astana, Kazakhstan.

“We were looking forward all of us to come here to discuss how to make sure that the Astana initiative that we strongly support, because we feel that focus on cessation of hostilities is the beginning of everything related to any negotiation in Syria,” de Mistura said in Moscow, Sputnik reported.

He said he planned to meet Lavrov at the Munich Security Conference, scheduled for February 17-19, as well as the G20 foreign ministerial meeting later on Thursday.

Staffan de Mistura called his Thursday meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov very useful.

Commenting on the results of the meeting, de Mistura praised results of the talks, which lasted less than one hour.

The Syrian constitution and elections under the supervision of the United Nations will be the focus of February 23 talks in Geneva, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Thursday.

“The agenda is clear, one is the issue about governance, the other one is about constitution, an another one is elections under UN supervision,” de Mistura said in Moscow.

He said the delegates would start arriving in Geneva on February 20-23, and called on efforts to promote the political process on Syria to be stepped up.

The efforts aimed at promotion of the political process in Syria need to be intensified, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura added.

“Now that we have a grossomodo [in broad terms] cessation of hostilities we need to accelerate the political process,” de Mistura said following the talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.

De Mistura expected to have talks with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu later in the day.

M.Wassouf