Syria says ready for talks with rebels


02:15 NZDT Tue Feb 26 2013
Syria's foreign minister says the government is ready for talks with armed rebels as he held talks with his Russian counterpart.

02:15 Tue Feb 26 2013

AAP







The Syrian regime is ready for talks with armed rebels and anyone who favours dialogue, President Bashar al-Assad's foreign minister says, in the first such offer by a top Syrian official.
Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem was in Moscow on Monday for talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, whose country is one of the few big powers to still maintain ties with Assad's regime.
Russia has renewed calls for rebels and regime to engage in direct negotiations to end the two-year conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, warning that pressing for a military victory risked destroying Syria.
"We are ready for dialogue with all who want dialogue, including those who are carrying arms," Muallem said at the talks with Lavrov.
"We still believe in a peaceful solution to the Syrian problem," said Muallem, pointing to the creation of a government coalition that would negotiate with both the "external and internal opposition".
Lavrov said alongside Muallem that there was no alternative to a political solution to the two-year conflict agreed through talks.
He warned there was no point for the sides trying to fight towards a "victorious end" and warned Assad's regime not to give into what he termed "provocations".
Russia has also been working on agreeing a trip to Moscow, possibly in early March, by the head of the Syrian opposition National Coalition Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib.
However the rebels have now pulled out of talks with foreign powers in protest at the international community's inability to halt the bloodshed.
While Khatib has offered to talk to regime officials without "blood on their hands", the National Coalition has said Assad and the top military command cannot be part of any solution.
The Muallem-Lavrov talks came a day before Russia's top diplomat meets new US Secretary of State John Kerry in Berlin for the first time, with the Syria crisis topping the agenda.
COPY  http://news.msn.co.nz

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