As the conflict in Syria continues and government warplanes continue to attack the rebels in the capital city of Damascus and the city of Alleppo, Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem announced Monday while in Moscow, that President Bashar al-Assad is open to dialogue with any parties that want to take part.

The announcement was made in Moscow, where al-Moallem was attending a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, who said, he didn’t believe that there was a military solution to the conflict taking place in Syria. Lavrov also said that continued fighting in the Middle Eastern country will only lead to “mutual destruction.”

But al-Moallem also said that the Syrian government will continue to pursue it fight “against terrorism,” which is widely believed to be a referrence to the rebels assaulting the country.

This is an easing of the much harder stance that the Assad government has held in the past. Ealier, the Syrian government rejected any talks with the rebels in the country.

Rebel forces continue to demand a complete ceasefire as well as the departure of Assad and trials held against security and military chiefs before talks can even begin. Assad’s family has been in power since 1970.

On Friday, Assad’s forces ruthlessly pummeled Aleppo’s Tarek alBab district with missiles, killing at least thirty.

Rebel forces, it is reoported, have taken over the military post, Al-Khibar, in the eastern province of Deirt el-Zour, that post is believed to be the site of a partially built nuclear reactor. The entire military complex was destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in 2007. What remained of the site was later torn down by the Syrian government.

On Sunday, continued airstrikes by government forces slammed at the rebel strongholds in Damascus and the suburb of Ezaz near Alleppo.

It is believed that as many as 70,000 people have been killed in the two-year conflict that has left millions homeless, nearly a million people have fled the country since fighting began.