GENEVA, March 13. /TASS/. The civil war in Syria could have been resolved back in 2012, if the international community listened to Russia, the UN former envoy on Syria Lahdar Brahimi said in an interview with the As-Jazeera television channel.

He said the conflict could have been resolved in 2012 had there been a better understanding of the situation, adding that none of the countries involved in the conflict or negotiations "had the interest of the Syrian people as their first priority."

In 2014, Brahimi tried to launch in Geneva the Syrian peace talks, called Geneva-2, but the attempts failed and Brahimi quit.

His position was taken by diplomat Staffan de Mistura, who on March 14 will give a start in Geneva to the second round of the inter-Syrian peace talks, which sometimes informally are referred to as Geneva-3.