The UN peace envoy to Syria on Monday said in Damascus that an upcoming round of negotiations in Geneva aimed at ending the country's five-year war would be "crucially important," AFP reports.
"The Geneva talks' next phase are crucially important because we will be focusing in particular on the political transition, on governance and constitutional principles," Staffan de Mistura told reporters after meeting Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.
"We hope and plan to make them constructive and we plan to make them concrete," the envoy said.