MOSCOW, December 29 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday will hear assessments of UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on prospects for getting out of the Syrian crisis.
Brahimi arrived in Moscow from Damascus, where as media reported he discussed a compromise roadmap for the conflict settlement.
A peace plan for Syria based on the Geneva communique envisages the creation of a transition governing body, but it is still unclear, whether there is a place for President Bashar al-Assad in this structure.
This aspect creates a cornerstone for the conflicting parties, as the irreconcilable opposition represented by the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces set up in Doha rejects any dialogue with the incumbent government.
“Through the Russian embassy in Cairo the contacts with representatives of the coalition have already taken place,” Lavrov said. “We expressed readiness to meet with its leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib and still demonstrate such intention. As we see they also do not reject a proposal to meet.”
Lavrov recalled that Moscow was disappointed with the coalition’s statement of its adherence to oust the regime in Damascus and dismantle Syria’s all state institutions.
The Libyan scenario despite its failure from the point of view of close interpretation of the international law still remains a priority for practically all external players, although inert hopelessness makes one think of the opposite. However, “geopolitical engineering” removes borders between realities and fantasies.
Moscow draws attention to the fact that the Geneva communique still lives and will live if not sabotage and depressive statements of “true supporters of Syria’s democracy.” The recipe is simple: “Not to harm”.
On Thursday Syrian First Deputy Foreign Minister, Faisal Muqdad, visited the Russian capital. In reply to multiple questions of journalists to comment the results of the talks in Moscow he simply raised his hands to the skies, probably, redirecting all questions to the Creator and not to power players.
At the first opportunity reporters asked Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the results of the talks with Faisal Muqdad.
“Yesterday we received the Syrian authorities’ assessment of the recent visit to Damascus of UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, whom we will meet in Moscow tomorrow (December 29) to get comprehensive overview of the situation, taking into account both parties’ assessments after the negotiations in Syria,” the Russian diplomat said. “As concerns other issues on the yesterday agenda we actively persuaded (what we’ve been doing for the last months) the Syrian authorities to maximally elaborate the readiness for dialogue with the opposition they had declared, what would highlight their openness to discuss most different themes within the framework of the agreements reached in Geneva on June 30, 2012.”