Baku-APA. Syria will take part in UN talks aimed at launching formal negotiations on ending its four-year war but will not be bound by their outcome, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Friday, APA reports quoting AFP.
Muallem told the UN General Assembly that he understood the talks, proposed by UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, to be "mainly to exchange ideas" and non-binding.
He addressed the 193-nation assembly as Russian warplanes carried out a third day of air strikes in Syria, this time targeting the IS bastion of Raqa.
Russia launched its air war this week, saying it was responding to a request for help from President Bashar al-Assad to defeat the Islamic State group.
Taking a swipe at the US-led coalition that has been fighting IS jihadists for a year, Muallem said airstrikes were "useless" unless carried out in coordination with the Syrian army "the only force in Syria that is combating terrorism."
Russia and the United States have clashed over how to address the crisis in Syria with Moscow insisting that Assad's army must take part in the military campaign to defeat IS jihadists.
Washington is calling for Assad to step down and hold him responsible for the majority of the 240,000 deaths from the war.
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