Al-Moallem, Lavrov to Hold Talks on Preparations for Geneva II Conference
MOSCOW- Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov will hold talks in Moscow on Friday.
A Russian Foreign Ministry statement announced on Thursday that the meeting will focus on preparations for the Geneva II international conference on Syria, which should be convened in the Swiss city of Montreux on January 22nd and on problems facing the implementation of the UN resolution on the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria.
“The conference is intended to ensure the launch of an inter-Syrian dialogue involving representative delegations of the SAR government and the (opposition) based on the Geneva communique of June 30, 2012 without preconditions,” it said, according to the Voice of Russia.
“The decisions to be made within the framework of the upcoming Geneva process should be a product of mutual consent of the Syrian parties and cannot be imposed on the negotiating parties by anyone,” it said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry intends “to work intensely together with US partners and the UN so that the SAR government and the opposition take a number of practical humanitarian steps in the interests of forming a favorable atmosphere in the run-up to the conference,” it said.
“Problems with the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution 2118 and Russia’s practical assistance in implementing the plan of eliminating the Syrian chemical weapons will also be discussed at negotiations with Moallem in Moscow, with an emphasis placed on overcoming the difficulties existing in this process,” the ministry said.
The agenda of the negotiations traditionally contains relevant aspects of Russian-Syrian bilateral relations and the provision of Russian humanitarian aid to the Syrian people who suffer the repercussions of terrorism.
H. Mustafa