Russia wants initiators of Islamic anti-terror coalition to clarify its format — FM

MOSCOW- Russia expects the organizers of the Islamic anti-terrorist coalition to clarify its format, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday after talks involving Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

“We have learnt about it [the establishment of the coalition] from the mass media,” he said. “We expect the initiators of this process to provide detailed information.”

Touching on the Monday meeting of the Friends of Syria Group in Paris, the Russian foreign minister noted it was “a meeting of several countries which gathered in the French capital city to exchange views on the situation in Syria and on the tasks facing those who wants to settle them.”, according to TASS.

 “Our position is that all must make their contribution both in the anti-terrorist efforts and in promoting the political process. But we prefer to do it in a collective format, a format that was formed in Vienna and that involves all key players who can influence this or that way various conflicting parties in Syria, a format that was approved by the United Nations Security Council in a recent resolution,” Lavrov underscored.

“This process embraces preparation of the list of terrorist organizations, which is coordinated by Jordan,” he said. “Our Jordanian partners, with the mediation from all members of the international Syria support group, have already collected information which, as seen by each country, is related to terrorist structure. Now the Jordanians are dispatching this information to the capitals of all the group’s members.”

These efforts are being continued, Lavrov noted. “It is already evident that the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra are recognized as terrorist organizations that could never be invited for talks and that could not fall under ceasefire agreement when political process starts and when conditions for ceasefire are in place,” he said.

In his words, there are a number of other organizations most of the Syria support group members recognize as terrorist. “We are yet to agree the rest of the list when we meet next time, I hope this Friday in New York,” he added.

“Further on, work will continue to promote the United Nations’ efforts on the formations of an opposition delegation for talks with the government,” Lavrov underscored. “The Vienna documents have it that all members of the Syria support group are invited to help the United Nations forms such a delegation.”.

M.Wassouf