RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov slammed UN “inaction” yesterday, claiming Syria peace talks had been postponed to the end of February.

The way to the Geneva talks, originally set for February 8, was paved at ceasefire talks in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana this week, mediated by Russia and Iran, which support the Syrian government in the country’s civil war, and Turkey, which has funded and armed the Islamist insurgency.

“We’re convinced that the inactivity of our colleagues at the UN, who haven’t conducted a single round of talks since last April, is unacceptable,” Mr Lavrov said at a meeting with Syrian rebels in Moscow.

“We hope that the UN will not put off calling the next round of Syrian talks any more.”

But UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura’s spokeswoman Yara Sharif said the February talks might not be postponed after all and said the situation would become clearer when Mr Mistura returned from talks with UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres next week.

Mr Lavrov confirmed that Moscow had floated a list of suggestions for a new Syrian constitution — the second in five years — to militants, who leaked it to media on Thursday.

The document reaffirms the Syrian Arab Republic’s religious pluralism and territorial integrity, but proposes removing the word “Arab” from its name to reflect its ethnic diversity.

Most of the armed Islamist groups fighting the government call for Syria to become a specifically Islamic state, while Kurdish forces fighting Isis have made demands for regional autonomy to protect the socialist self-governed areas they have set up in the course of the war.

The ceasefire’s provision that rebel groups join the fight against the al-Qaida-affiliated Levant Conquest Front appeared shaky yesterday as the Western-backed Ahrar as-Sham has rejected the deal.

On Thursday British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson made yet another U-turn on the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who he said should be permitted to run for election as part of a “democratic resolution” to the war on Syria.