Russia calls for efforts for Syrian reconciliation talks

Moscow: Substantive talks on Syrian reconciliation in Geneva have made some progress and should be sustained, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday.

UN Special Envoy Staffan De Mistura's statement about continuing the negotiations on April 11 sounds optimistic, Xinhua news agency cited Ryabkov as saying in an interview with Russian newspaper Izvestiya.

Future negotiations should ensure equal representation of the Kurds and the Syrian opposition should adopt a more realistic stance and abandon attempts to set preconditions, he said.

On US State Secretary John Kerry's recent visit to Moscow, Ryabkov said the frequency of Kerry's visits to Moscow is unprecedented.

"It stems from the nature of issues we are discussing and from the US's recognition, despite its own declarations, that a number of major and important international problems cannot be solved without Russia," he said.

The latest round of Syrian peace talks, which opened on March 14, was wrapped up in Geneva on Thursday with a paper of 12 points of commonalities delivered to both sides for further consideration.

On top of the points list is the principle of respect for sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria, and "no part of the national territory shall be ceded."