Geir Pedersen holds meeting with Walid Muallem

UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen held a "constructive" meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus to discuss a political settlement of the crisis in the country.

"We had constructive meetings and we agreed that we would continue to have close contact in the future. Absolutely," the AP cited Pedersen as saying.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Muallem stressed that the settlement plan for Syria must include the withdrawal of illegal foreign troops from the country.

"Muallem expressed Syria’s readiness to cooperate with Pedersen for his successful mission in ensuring an intra-Syrian dialogue to reach a political settlement that in the interests of Syria, among other things, would lead to the defeat of terrorism and the end of the illegal foreign presence in Syria", the ministerial statement read.