The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that the Russian delegation which had visited Syria recently discussed details related to holding a second round of inter-Syrian consultations in Moscow between April 6th and 9th.

The Ministry said in a statement that Russia’s Special Envoy Azmatullah Kolmohammadov and the director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vitaly Naumkin, had visited Damascus on March 21st and 22nd as commissioned by the Russian Foreign Ministry, and discussed during the visit issued related to holding the second round of inter-Syrian talks in Moscow.

The Ministry pointed out that the Syrian partners lauded Russia’s efforts for holding the talks and affirmed their determination to make their participation in the next Moscow meeting successful.

President Bashar al-Assad had met Kolmohammadov and accompanying delegation last Sunday, asserting during the meeting the importance of continuous consultations and coordination between Moscow and Damascus in order to ensure the success of the efforts for promoting a political solution for the crisis in Syria.

On a relevant note, a Russian diplomatic source said that the fact that representatives of the Doha Coalition refrained from participating in the second rounds of consultations in Moscow isn’t a tragedy and shouldn’t affect the level of representation of the opposition.

The source, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that despite the Coalition’s refusal to participate in the meeting, Russia is still working with its representatives until now, saying that the Coalition doesn’t represent all elements of the opposition and that their absence from the first meeting didn’t detract from its success.