MOSCOW,— The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that talks will be held in Moscow between the Syrian regime and opposition groups between January 26-29.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mihail Bogdanov said delegations would arrive on January 26, adding that there would be talks with representatives of the opposition on 27 January, followed by a meeting of the opposition with representatives of the Syrian government on 28 January.

Last month Russian announced that it would host dialogue between the parties as the first stage of a possible peace process, and the Syrian government said it was prepared to attend.

On Wednesday 14 January US Secretary of State John Kerry, during a visit to Genbeva, said he hoped the Moscow talks would be positive.

Kerry said: “It is time for the Assad regime to put their people first and to think about the consequences of their actions which are attracting more and more terrorists to Syria, basically because of their efforts to remove Assad.” Kerry also said he wished UN and Arab League envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, well in his bid to organize local ceasefires in embattled Syrian towns, starting with Aleppo.

Haytam Manna, President of the National Co-ordination Body for Democratic Change Abroad, told AFP that before deciding whether to attend the talks they were waiting for replies to their questions from Moscow.

Manna added that all parties should be invited, in particular left parties.

Another spokesman for the group, Munzer Haddam, said that the executive council would meet in Damascus on Saturday and make a decision.

The Co-President, Salih Muslim, of the Democratic Union Party PYD, the largest party in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) has been invited to attend the talks.

Salih Müslim told MedNuçe that he had received an invitation.

Müslim said they had yet to reply, but that they considered the invitation to be positive.

The new president of the Syrian National Coalition based in Istanbul, Khalid Hoja, of Turkmen origin, said they would not attend the talks.

In November the previous president of the Western and Turkish-supported opposition also said they would refuse an invitation while on a visit to Moscow.

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