January 17, 2014 - 1:25 AM
MOSCOW - Syria's foreign minister says Damascus is prepared to exchange prisoners of war with the country's opposition forces.
Walid al-Moallem told journalists about the possible exchange on Friday after meeting in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. Al-Moallem also said he had presented Russia with a plan containing "measures to enforce security in Aleppo," a war-torn city 190 miles (310 km) from the Syrian capital.
The meeting between Russian and Syrian sides comes ahead of a peace conference dubbed Geneva 2, which opens Wednesday in Montreux, Switzerland.
Prospects for the talks, the first between the warring sides in Syria since the start of the conflict that has now claimed over 100,000 lives, are dim as each party shows no inclination for compromise.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014