Syrian government

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad urged states fighting terrorism to share intelligence, Syrian state media reported on Jan. 14, saying European policies were responsible for attacks by Islamist gunmen in France last week.
   

The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group has begun a three-day meeting in Istanbul to discuss a range of issues, including a Russian initiative to hold peace talks in Moscow to broker a resolution to Syria's civil war.

The Syrian National Coalition is also expected to elect a new president during the closed-door proceedings that opened on Jan. 2 in Istanbul.

Syrian state-run TV said Dec. 27 that the government is prepared to take part in peace talks hosted by Russia next month, but the unnamed foreign ministry official it cited suggested the scope of the negotiations would be limited to "preliminary" talks meant to pave the way for a conference held in Syria itself.
                   

Russia plans to host delegations from the Syrian opposition in late January, possibly followed by a visit by regime representatives that could bring the two sides together for talks, the foreign ministry said Dec. 25.

Members of the Syrian opposition are expected in Moscow "after January 20th," Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Dec. 17 to extend cross-border delivery of humanitarian aid to Syrians in rebel-held areas without Syrian government approval.
     

Around 100 Syrian soldiers and 80 Islamist fighters were killed during a two-day battle in which insurgents took the Wadi al-Deif military base, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Dec. 16.
   

The U.N. peace envoy to Syria is hopeful for a freeze of hostilities in Aleppo, U.N. Special Syria Envoy Staffan de Mistura's spokesperson Juliette Touma told daily Hürriyet following the talks between Syrian political and military opposition groups in Turkey.

The United Nations peace envoy to Syria is holding talks with the Syrian opposition in Turkey to promote a cease-fire proposal for the northern city of Aleppo, opposition sources said on Dec. 8.

Staffan de Mistura hopes the plan will establish truces in Aleppo, once Syria's commercial center and second-most-populous city, and allow aid into rebel districts.

Moscow is aware of the pressure on Turkey stemming from violence in Iraq and Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said ahead of his Dec. 1 visit to Turkey.

"We are fully aware of the burden imposed on Turkey by the ongoing violent conflict ravaging your neighbors," Putin said in an interview with Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency.

Syria rejected as "fabricated" U.S. accusations that its forces are targeting civilians with air strikes and said Washington would do better to criticize hardline Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) who have killed American citizens.