Lavrov Calls for Ending Freezing of Syria’s AL Membership

ABU DHABI– Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on Wednesday to end the freezing of Syria’s membership in the Arab League (AL).

According to SANA, in a press conference held at the conclusion of the fourth session of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum in Abu Dhabi, Lavrov said Syria’s return to the League of Arab States would help joint efforts on the political settlement in the country.

“The fact that the Syrian government, a legitimate UN member, cannot take part in the Arab League discussions does not help our joint efforts. I think the Arab League could have played a more important role if the Syrian government was part of this organization,” he added.

 On the other hand, Lavrov said that Moscow hopes that new groups of the opposition will join the cessation of hostilities agreement in Syria as this agreement is open to all those who may wish to join it, except for the terrorist groups ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra.

“As we have said, the declaration of the plans for a meeting in Astana served as a reminder to our friends at the United Nations to recall that their business is negotiations. So they set a date,” Lavrov said, adding that “for some reason they have already moved it from February 8 to the end of the month.”

“We do hope that such postponements will be few,” he said.