The United Nations envoy for Syria visited Russia today for talks focusing on future peace negotiations. Speaking at the start of his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Staffan de Mistura said it comes at a delicate important moment in Syria's 6-year civil war. <br/><br/>He stressed the importance of coordination between the talks in Geneva and the upcoming talks in Astana sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran, saying they are closely interconnected. He said without a good de-escalation process Geneva talks will be difficult, but without the Geneva progress there will be no horizon. The Astana talks set for later this month will focus on specifics of de-escalation zones in Syria.<br/><br/>Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to establish the zones in Syria, signing on to a Russian plan under which President Bashar Assad's air force would halt flights over designated areas across the war-torn country.