Russia Urges Equal Representation of All “Syrian Opposition” Groups in Forthcoming Geneva Meeting

MOSCOW, (ST)- Moscow affirms the need for equal representation of all “Syrian opposition” groups in the forthcoming Geneva talks on settlement in Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov announced in a statement on Friday.

Earlier today, Yara Shareef, Spokesperson for the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, said the UN envoy is still putting the finishing touches on the list of the parties who will attend the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva scheduled to begin on February 23.  

Commenting on de Mistura’s visit to Moscow, Gatilov said “Russia insists that representatives of the [armed opposition], who took part in Astan 1 and Astana 2 meetings, have to take part in the talks to be held in Geneva next week, adding that he told de Mistura that it is necessary to have equal representation of all opposition groups including Moscow, Cairo, Astana and Hmeimem platforms.”

He went on to say that he stressed to de Mistura that it will be a mistake to focus only on one of the extremist opposition groups, which is Riyadh group. He pointed out that “it is necessary also to guarantee the participation of the Syrian Kurds”.

Geneva talks stopped on April 27 last year without achieving  a breakthrough. Meetings were held only between the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic and de Mistura because of the negative stance of the ” Riyadh opposition group” and its being linked to foreign agenda’s.

Hamda Mustafa