MOSCOW, April 16 (RIA Novosti) – Representatives of Syria’s political opposition arrived in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the situation in their country, which has been torn apart by an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad that began in March 2011.
The delegation includes Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil, leader of the People’s Will party, and National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar, leader of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.
Haidar said previously in an interview with Voice of Russia radio that the delegation has brought concrete proposals to Moscow for the resolution of the Syria crisis.
Earlier in the day, President Assad declared an amnesty for an unspecified number of criminals for crimes committed before April 16, 2013, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported. The same presidential decree replaced the death penalty with a life sentence of hard labor.
About 70,000 people have died in Syria since the start of the uprising against President Assad in March 2011, according to UN estimates.