Al-Jaafari says Syrian government’s assessment of Moscow meeting “positive”
Moscow – Bashar al-Jaafari, head of the Syrian government’s delegation to the second round of Moscow consultative meeting said the government’s assessment of the meeting is positive as the government’s delegation and those of the opposition sides made it through to a unified paper.
Speaking in a press conference on Friday, al-Jaafari said that the paper struck an important chord by tackling the Syrian people’s interests, providing an assessment of the dangers posed by terrorism and unifying the ranks of the Syrians in fighting it, as well as supporting the Syrian army and preserving the state’s institutions, according to Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
Al-Jaafari described Russian side as ” independent and neutral” whose role is confined to being a facilitator, indicating that some sides sought to abort the meetings in Moscow.
An agreement about the second and third items was likely had it not been for the opposition’s attempts to buy time, he added.
He added that quite few had withdrawn their signatures because they did not dare say no when the document was adopted. “But they said what they said later because they wanted to play their dirty media tricks.”
He stated that fighting terrorism will be at the center of next meeting’s agenda.
“Moscow’s track is a consultative meeting between the Syrians that has no international dimensions,” al-Jaafari said, indicating that the UN envoy Staffan de Mistura “represents the international dimension” which he considered incompatible with the Russian framework for the meeting as supposedly being purely inter-Syrian.
He added that the Syrian government has the right to enlist the support of friends in the battle against terrorism which he said is legitimate, thanking the Russian government for the facilitations it provided for the meeting to be a success.
“But the terror organizations which are sponsored by foreign agendas and funded by the dirty money of the Gulf are illegitimate,” al-Jaafari added, affirming that the fight against terrorism is not a Syrian issue only.
Al-Jaafari warned of a major plan intended to pit Arab states against each other and undermine the Arab armies in service of Israel.
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