The Syrian deputy premier, Qadri Jamil’s yesterday visit to Moscow and the talks held with Russian officials, particularly with the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergie Lavrov, are indeed fruitful and constructive, as the talks covered scores of economic, financial and political topics.
The talks underscored the dire need for a political solution to the crisis in Syria as Minister Lavrov outlined: “There is no military solution to the Syrian problem. We’d like all parties involved in the conflict to know about it. We continue to meet with the government and all opposition groups and convince them to accept the Russian-American initiative on the convocation of the Geneva-2 conference as soon as possible without any preconditions.”
Minister Lavrov pointed out that the majority of the opposition groups, including the National Coalition, was resistant to a political solution, while the Syrian government is open for the dialogue with the opposition,” Thus, the said opposition groups not only reject political solution, but, at the orders of anti-Syrians countries, and on a daily basis spread horror, and terror in many parts of Syria.
The Russian Minister, however, reminded these groups and their supporters that the goal agreed upon at a meeting of the Group of Eight major economies last month was but to expel the “terrorists and extremists” as one of the main points of the proposed Geneva 2 conference. “We believe that this task should be one of the points of the international conference,” Lavrov said.
Another important aspect of Mr. Jamil’s talks is his focus at the western negative role in causing and prolonging the suffering of the Syrians. The deputy Premier held the West the main responsibility for the siege imposed on the Syrians; the West is indeed the perpetrator of the ongoing suffering of the Syrian people.
Actually such a sane and balanced Russian stance in commitment to the principles of international law, sovereignty, and legitimacy would pave the way and lead to a political settlement of the crisis. Fluctuating, biased and contradictory stances by the West, particularly by UK, France, and the USA, are indeed the main obstacle hindering the aspired to political settlement.
Dr. Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim