UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura intends to hold four more rounds of intra-Syrian talks in Geneva and is hopeful to see drastic changes on the ground by the end of the year, RIA Novosti reported.

The seventh round of the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva began on Monday.

At the start of the talks, Mr. de Mistura said that “several stars” were aligning in favour of potential progress towards an end to the crisis. In particular, he welcomed the new de-escalation zone in the south-west of the war-torn country, near the Jordan, Lebanon and Israeli borders.