Russia hopes Munich meeting leads to Syria crisis settlement

The Russian Foreign Ministry has raised hope that the upcoming meeting of major powers in the German city of Munich will have a positive outcome for ending the Syrian crisis.

"It is now important not to lose the emerging trend and to consider the entire range of issues which need to be resolved for setting the process forth and making it dynamic again," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

Members of the International Syria Support Group, comprising 17 countries and three organizations trying to find a way out of the conflict, will meet in Germany later this week to find a political solution to the nearly five-year-long crisis in Syria. It is the group’s first meeting since the UN-brokered peace talks between delegates from the Syrian government and divided opposition suspended in the Swiss city of Geneva earlier this month.

"I think this is what meetings on the margins of the Munich Security Conference, the meeting in the Vienna format and bilateral meetings will be devoted to," Zakharova said.

The spokeswoman added that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will take part in the Munich meeting and is planned to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

SS