“The working Groups are meant to provide Syrians with a platform to address in-depth themes that are certainly not new, but have lacked to date sustained intra-Syrian discussion”, he said in July.
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Iran and Russian Federation support President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, while the United States and Saudi Arabia support an array of Mr. Assad’s opponents who want him to relinquish power as part of any settlement.
Earlier on Monday, De Mistura said he has discussed the outcomes of Vienna meeting during his visit to Damascus, as neither the government, nor the opposition was present at the meeting, adding that it is of his duties to inform all Syrians the result of Vienna meeting.
Iran has threatened to withdraw from the Syria peace talks over the “unconstructive” and “negative” role of Saudi Arabia in recent worldwide talks on the Syrian crisis.
He said the process should lead to a new constitution for Syria and internationally supervised elections, as well as an end to violence between Assad’s military and rebels so that the world community can focus on the counterterrorism challenge.
Deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov called the contact with the opposition groups “useful”, both for “fighting terrorism and promoting the political process”, while speaking to Interfax news agency.
Diplomats representing the United States, its Gulf allies and Turkey meet in Vienna Friday to discuss efforts in Syria, but failed to reach agreement on Assad.
Russian Federation has been one of Mr. Assad’s strongest supporters and launched an airstrike campaign in late September at the Syrian President’s request, targeting anti-Assad rebels.
The list included mostly former and current members of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SNC), Syria’s Western-backed political opposition block, Kommersant newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Mr Mekdad also said that Syria had not received official notice of any meeting with members of the Syrian opposition, after a Russian official said Moscow might bring them together next week.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday it was inappropriate to link Russia’s military strategy in Syria with the results of an investigation into an airplane crash in Egypt over the weekend in which over 200 people died.
“The preservation of Syria’s statehood is fundamentally important to us”, she said.
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In the west, Russian warplanes carried out airstrikes in Hama province while unidentified jets bombarded the outskirts of the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa in the north.
