22/07/2013 16:10
Russia regrets refusal of many Syrian opposition members to attend Geneva-2
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov regrets the refusal of certain Syrian opposition forces to take part in the Geneva-2 international conference, Voice of Russia correspondent reports.
"To our deepest regret, in contrast to the Syrian government, a substantial part of the opposition, including the National Coalition, has not expressed such readiness so far," he said before a meeting with Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil in Moscow.
Moscow is trying to convey the idea of the hopelessness of the attempts to solve the Syrian conflict with military methods to all conflicting sides, Lavrov said.
"We continue our meetings with members of the Syrian government and all opposition groups and are trying to convince them of the need for the soonest acceptance of the Russian-US initiative of an international conference for Syria to be held without preconditions for the sake of the complete and comprehensive implementation of the 2012 Geneva Communique," the Russian minister said.
He added that Russia was insistently requesting its partners who had influence on the opposition National Coalition to persuade it to abandon the unconstructive position.
"We know that your government is open for dialogue with opposition forces and we ask you to support these efforts so that not a single constructive opposition group is left outside of the upcoming conference, which hopefully will be held in the near future," Lavrov said.