Syria ready to take part in UN peace talks, minister says

Moualem, who spoke to reporters in English, said he had told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that Syria was “ready to participate in the Syrian-Syrian dialogue in Geneva without any foreign interference”.

On December 18 the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an global road map for a Syrian peace process.

Earlier this month, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Syrian settlement, which reaffirmed the goals of the Vienna agreements to bring the entire spectrum of the political groups in the crisis-torn country to the negotiating table and stated that the next round of the talks would take place in January, 2016. “Our delegation will be ready as soon as we receive a list of the opposition delegation”.

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The Chinese foreign ministry has defended its coastguard patrol near the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

Beijing has hosted Syrian government and opposition figures separately, but this is the first time the Chinese government had explicitly offered to help act as mediator.

Islamic State is the strongest insurgent force in Syria and Assad has said that ousting him would clear the way for Islamist militants to take over the country and endanger the wider world.

However, he noted that a meeting of the Syrian government and opposition in China, if realized, will be just one such meeting on resolving the Syrian issue. Should China actually host rare peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition, it would be a big step forward in Beijing’s direct involvement in ending the messy conflict.

Wang also said there are other signs China is becoming more accepted by the worldwide community.

Over the weekend, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said a global united fight against terrorism must not be held “hostage” to the “future of one person”.