The different countries hope to eventually reach agreement on a “multilateral framework for a successful political transition in Syria which leads to a government not led by Bashar al-Assad”, Kirby said.
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The United States and Saudi Arabia have agreed to increase support for Syria’s moderate opposition while seeking a political resolution of the four-year conflict, the U.S. State Department said after Secretary of State John Kerry met King Salman of Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
The main Western-backed political opposition, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, also denied such visits in a statement posted on its website.
The spokesman for Alwiyat Seif al-Sham, an FSA group operating in southern Syria, said: “Nothing of this sort happened on our part as FSA”.
Sergei Gavrilov, another Russian lawmaker, told Tass that Assad was ready to hold parliamentary elections that included “reasonable, patriotic opposition forces”.
That election was dismissed as a “farce” by the opposition and its supporters, with voting held only in government-controlled areas and millions of the displaced and refugees unable to vote.
Assad’s term expires in 2021.
The country last held parliamentary elections in May 2012, and it is in theory due to hold its next legislative vote in 2016.
The latest push for a diplomatic solution to the conflict comes in the wake of Russia’s military intervention, which Moscow says is aimed at helping the Assad government defeat the Islamic State group and other “terrorists”.
Saudi Arabia has also been highly critical of a Russian air campaign launched recently against anti-regime forces in Syria.
“The eradication of terrorist organisations will lead to the political solution that Syria and Russian Federation seek and that will satisfy the Syrian people and preserve Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity”, state news agency SANA quoted Assad as saying.
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Meanwhile, an alliance of Free Syrian Army-related insurgent groups said on Monday it was skeptical about a Russian proposal to help rebels, and that Moscow must stop bombing rebels and civilians and withdraw its support for Assad. Akbik, the opposition politician, confirmed he had learned of such communications. He said he had been consulting with the factions but that he asked the go-between for an end to Russian strikes on FSA positions before such a meeting can be held.
