Hafez al-Assad

Negotiations over the Syria crisis are currently taking place in the Russian capital Moscow.

The talks that are also attended by representatives of the regime in Syria and some opposition leaders will continue until April 9.

The Syrian delegation in Moscow was headed by the country's ambassador to the UN, Bashar Ja'afari.

The foreign ministers of Syria and Iraq met in Damascus on March 24 to discuss ways to tackle militant groups and Syria said it hoped Baghdad would help "break the siege" against it, Syrian state media said, ahead of an Arab summit.
   

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fired two top intelligence chiefs after a fight between the two officials, a high-ranking security source in Damascus told AFP on March 20.
      

The fighting in Syria, which started with an uprising against the Bashar al-Assad regime and transformed into a deadly civil war, has entered its fifth year. As of January 2015, it has claimed over 220,000 lives, displaced 7.6 million people inside Syria, and driven another 3.5 million people out of the country.

France insisted March 16 that a solution to the crisis in Syria could only come through a "political negotiation between different Syrian parties" but reiterated that President Bashar al-Assad "cannot" be one of them.
      

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said March 16 he was waiting for US "actions" after Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged talks with Damascus were necessary to end the country's conflict.
      

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".
      

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad urged states fighting terrorism to share intelligence, Syrian state media reported on Jan. 14, saying European policies were responsible for attacks by Islamist gunmen in France last week.