MOSCOW — Russia has “cautious optimism” about the possibility for Syrian peace talks, Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said.

“We hope that the opposition and government will find a way to sit down at the negotiating table,” he told reporters in Moscow Tuesday. “A consolidated position of outside powers” is among the conditions needed for that to happen, he said.

Starting war crimes prosecutions in Syria would be neither timely nor productive, Gatilov said. “The priority now is to end the violence, start a political process and stabilize the situation in Syria.”