Syrian delegation heads to Russian for peace talks
The opposition head was also interested in invitation but regretted being unable to visit Moscow.
MOSCOW (AFP) - A senior Syrian regime delegation was Monday in Moscow to hold talks with top Russian diplomats on plans to hold a peace conference in Geneva to end the Syria conflict, the foreign ministry said.
President Bashar al-Assad s presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban and Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad were in Moscow and would hold talks with Gennady Gatilov and Mikhail Bogdanov, who are both Russian deputy foreign ministers, it said.
"The official Syrian delegation has arrived in Moscow and will hold talks at the foreign ministry," the Russian foreign ministry was quoted as saying by the Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies.
Syrian regime officials had said earlier the talks would focus on preparations for the proposed peace conference in Geneva which Russia and the United States originally wanted to hold in May but which has been repeatedly put back.
According to the Syrian opposition, Russia also invited the opposition National Coalition president Ahmed Jarba to Moscow from November 18 to 21 for a trip which would have coincided with the visit of the regime officials.
The opposition head was very interested in the invitation but regretted being unable to visit Moscow on Monday, due to "preset official commitments", adviser Munzer Aqbiq told AFP Sunday.
The proposed peace conference on Syria dubbed Geneva II aims to bring government and rebel representatives to the negotiating table for the first time.
The opposition Coalition has agreed to attend the peace talks so long as they lead to a transitional period that would see Assad s departure from power.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday held his first telephone talks with Assad in two years, applauding Damascus for its willingness to attend the peace conference.
AFP adds: The head of the Syrian rebel Liwa al-Tawhid Brigade has died of wounds he suffered in a regime air strike last week, the rebels and a monitor said on Monday.
"Abdel Qader Saleh has been martyred," said a posting on a Facebook page linked to the brigade.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the death.
"Abdel Qader Saleh, known as Hajji Marea, died of wounds he sustained last Thursday when war planes targeted the Liwa al-Tawhid leadership," it said in a statement.
"He was taken to Turkey after being wounded, and died in a hospital there before being brought back to Syria for burial," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Thursday s strike also killed Yussef al-Abbas, known as Abu al-Tayyeb, Liwa al-Tawhid s intelligence chief.
He had been in a car along with Saleh, and another senior figure in the rebel group, Abdelaziz Salameh, who was also wounded.
Following the attack, Liwa al-Tawhid arrested 30 people suspected of being informers for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Saleh, chief of operations for Liwa al-Tawhid, was widely seen as the brigade s most important figure.
His death comes as the Syrian regime makes new gains in Aleppo, seizing several towns and talking about reopening the Aleppo International Airport after nearly a year of closure.
Liwa al-Tawheed is believed to have some 8,000 fighters and is among a number of Islamist units that have rejected the mainstream opposition National Coalition.
It does participate in the military command linked to the Coalition, and is one of the best known rebel brigades fighting in the Aleppo area, with Saleh widely known in the region.
