(VOVworld) – UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Sunday in Damascus to discuss ongoing international talks on Syria’s four-year war, state media said. The envoy presented Muallem with a “detailed report” of talks between 17 global powers as well as the United Nations and the European Union last week in Vienna.

Geneva UN peace envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura pictured on October 12, 2015. (Photo: AFP/File)

The talks, which were held on Friday, aimed to narrow differences and divisions concerning the fighting in Syria. The talks, for the first time, gathered representatives from key nations, including Russia and Iran. But neither the Syrian government nor the Syrian opposition forces appointed representatives to participate in the talks. Attendees called for a ceasefire in Syria and asked the UN to mediate a peace deal between the Syrian administration and the opposition that would clear the way for a new constitution and elections supervised by the UN. Russia and Iran opposed pressures from the West and Saudi Arabia to persuade President Bashar Al Assad to step down.