"US-led coalition's intervention in Syria lacks legitimacy since it is an action against democratically elected president and government; United States sought in Syria to lead a war of attrition and destroying Syrian infrastructure". In an apparent effort to set the stage for transition talks, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday that Moscow does not consider it a matter of principle that Syrian President Bashar Assad should stay in power. Later, she told the TASS news agency that the remarks were not a change in position. However, she added in an interview with the Radio Eco in Moscow, "regime change could become a disaster, and not only at a local or regional level". "The Syrian people have been practically alone in putting up resistance and fighting these worldwide terrorists for several years now", Putin said then. Russian strikes have targeted moderate opponents to Assad, killing civilians in attacks on civil defense crews, hospitals, centers for displaced persons and ambulances, she claimed. Zakharova brought the focus back to terrorism, saying that diplomats involved in the Syria talks - who are expected to meet again within two weeks - need to agree on a list of terrorist organizations. Moscow now states it has arrange "working coordination groups" with "opposition representatives" aimed toward bolstering the fight against IS. The Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed alliance of Arab, Kurdish and Assyrian rebel groups, is making gains against Islamic State forces in northeastern Syria's al-Hasakah province. State TV said the road was now being demined and would be reopened to traffic on Thursday. Putin hosted the Syrian leader at the Kremlin last month, and is pushing for a power-sharing plan that would let him stay in office and contest elections, while giving the opposition a role in the Middle Eastern state's government. At the talks in Vienna, where Russian Federation was the leading player, Moscow said it wanted opposition groups to participate in future discussions on the Syria crisis and exchanged a list of 38 names with Saudi Arabia. When he was asked why the Obama administration announced the dispatch of a contingent of Special Operations forces to Syria on the same day a multinational conference was discussing diplomatic solutions to the country's civil war, Secretary of State John F. Kerry responded that it was a "coincidence". Points of contention have begun to emerge between Russian Federation and Iran over Syria, the pro-Saudi daily Al Arabiya reported on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a Syrian rebel group has defended its decision to use prisoners as human shields against regime and Russian air strikes.