Syria said it is ready to swap prisoners with the rebels and take swift steps that could lead to the first such mass exchange in nearly three years of fighting. The announcement by Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid Muallem in Moscow could mark another diplomatic success for Russia after the Kremlin managed to convince its ally Damascus to renounce its chemical weapons in order to avert imminent US air strikes.
It also came just as the war-torn country’s divided opposition prepared to hold decisive talks in Istanbul on whether to join a peace conference that is due to begin in Switzerland. Muallem failed to specify how many prisoners such a swap would involve or when it might begin. But it would represent a concession to one of the opposition’s key demands before it agreed to peace talks.
“I informed (Russian Foreign Minister Sergei) Lavrov of our principled position in favour of an agreement to exchange those held in Syrian prisons for those taken by the other side,” Muallem said following talks with his Russian counterpart in a government mansion in the heart of Moscow.
