MOSCOW, October 23. /TASS/. The Kremlin has to state that the so-called "moderate opposition" in Syria remains unidentifiable and in its attempts to spot it Moscow has no support from either the United States or the European countries. Russia keeps working along these lines and is prepared for a dialogue any moment, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"Regrettably, there is no central force in sight worthy of cooperation," he said. "That’s the root cause of the problem."
"From the very beginning of the operation in Syria President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have expressed the readiness to interact with the so-called moderate opposition. At the same time it had to be stated that attempts to identify the so-called moderate opposition remained unsuccessful all the way," Peskov said.
He pointed out that "no moderate forces can be spotted in the patchy mass of terrorist and extremist organizations that pose a threat to Syria’s territorial and political integrity."
"Regrettably, neither the US nor European partners, nor somebody else has been able to help us with this identification," Peskov said. "Other countries are unable to point to some moderate forces capable of taking care of a settlement in Syria. Regrettably, there have been no tangible results."
Asked about Turkish media reports there was a plan envisaging a six-month transitional period for Assad to form an interim government and eventually step down in exchange for guarantees of personal security Peskov said he had no information on that score.
"I know nothing of what sort of plan you are talking about," he said.