Any peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria must involve President Bashar Assad, the United Nations envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said Friday.

Any peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria must involve President Bashar Assad, the United Nations envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said Friday.

"President Assad is part of the solution," de Mistura told a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in Vienna.

"I will continue to have very important discussions with him," he added, noting that "the only solution is a political solution."

De Mistura, who was in Damascus this week where he met with Assad, is due to deliver a report on his mission to the U.N. Security Council on February 17.

If no solution to the conflict is found, "the only one who takes advantage of it is ISIL," de Mistura said.