MOSCOW- Russia favors holding the Geneva-2 conference on Syria by the end of November 2013, just as was planned originally, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said.
“As for setting particular dates for holding the Geneva conference, we believe this issue is within UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s purview. At the same time, we reaffirm that it would be good to hold the conference in Geneva at the planned time, by the end of November this year,” Bogdanov said in an interview for Bloomberg, posted on the Foreign Ministry website on Thursday.
The process of destroying Syrian chemical weapons is moving successfully and can realistically be completed by mid 2014, the Russian Foreign Ministry has reported.
“We believe the deadline given to Syria to destroy its chemical weapons arsenals by mid 2014 is quite realistic, of course, on condition that it is provided with effective international assistance,” said Mikhail Bogdanov.