United Nations Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura urged Russia on Wednesday to convince its ally the Syrian regime to hold direct talks with the opposition. He told Swiss television station RTS that the regime should be persuaded to the need to clinch a peace deal to end the nearly seven-year-old war. Failure to make peace quickly through United Nations mediation could lead to "a fragmentation of Syria", warned de Mistura. Asked what signal Russian President Vladimir Putin could give, he said: "Convince the (Syrian) regime that there is no time to lose.” “To win the peace, you have to have the courage to push the government to accept that there has to be a new constitution and new elections, through the United Nations,” he stressed.