Staffan de Mistura

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura paid a surprise visit on March 1 to a church near war-wracked Syria's capital in a show of solidarity with the country's Christian minority targeted by jihadists.
      
An AFP photographer said de Mistura travelled in a two-car UN convoy to a Greek Catholic church in Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and met with priest Toma Asitivo Kaka.

The United Nations envoy to Syria said Feb. 17 he has received a commitment from the Syrian government to suspend airstrikes and artillery shelling on the city of Aleppo for six weeks to allow a proposed U.N. plan to "freeze" hostilities in the country's largest city to be tested.
     

Any resolution to the fighting in Syria must involve President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations envoy to Syria has said in the first such acknowledgement by the UN.

"President Assad is part of the solution," Staffan de Mistura told a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in Vienna on Feb. 13.

Any resolution to the fighting in Syria must involve President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Feb. 13 in the first such acknowledgement by the UN.        

"President Assad is part of the solution," de Mistura told a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in Vienna.        

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Feb. 11 he will discuss his peace efforts with the Security Council, following a visit to Syria where he met President Bashar al-Assad.
      
State news agency SANA said the talks between the envoy and Syria's embattled leader were "positive and constructive".
      

Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. envoy to Syria, has said a solution to the conflict is impossible without the inclusion of Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Russia in talks to end the war.

Russia plans to host delegations from the Syrian opposition in late January, possibly followed by a visit by regime representatives that could bring the two sides together for talks, the foreign ministry said Dec. 25.

Members of the Syrian opposition are expected in Moscow "after January 20th," Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters.

Turkey has extended cautious support to a United Nations plan to create "frozen zones" within Syria, while also noting its concerns with the proposals and reiterating its demands that any political recommendations must include the removal of the Bashar al-Assad government.

The EU backed UN efforts to arrange a ceasefire in Syria's second city Aleppo on Monday as one of the few good options left in a conflict which has claimed more than 200,000 lives.
      

Syria's army seized an area north of Aleppo on Dec. 14 and killed insurgents in battles for the strategic territory, a group monitoring the war and state media reported.
  
Syria's second city is at the heart of a fierce battle between pro-government forces and a range of insurgents, including al Qaeda's Syria wing, Islamist brigades and Western-backed rebels.