国际英语资讯:Water crisis close to end in Damascus with hopes pinned on upcoming negotiations_时事

国际英语资讯:Water crisis close to end in Damascus with hopes pinned on upcoming negotiations

The government defended its offensive in that area, saying the Nusra Front is a main rebel power behind the water outage, and is excluded from the Russian-Turkish ceasefire deal.

With the heavy shelling on the area, several rebel groups reflected their frustration with the government offensive by announcing freezing their participation in talks on the upcoming negotiations in Astana, the first negotiations to include rebels and government officials in Syria to the talks.

But the deal now in Barada has saved the nationwide ceasefire and also the upcoming talks, where hopes are pinned on achieving a breakthrough in the way to bring an end to the nearly six-year-old war in Syria.

Earlier in the day, major Syrian opposition groups, including the largest one, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), were said to will likely attend the upcoming Astana talks, Russian media reported.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, a Syrian opposition delegation arrived in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the Russia-Turkey brokered talks.

The ministry said the delegation was hosted by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who is also Russia's presidential representative on the Middle East and Africa.

On Wednesday and Tuesday, Bogdanov also discussed the issue over phone with other representatives of the Syrian opposition, and talked in person with ambassadors of several Middle East countries, the ministry said.