Lavrov: Russia in contact with Egypt on forming Syrian opposition delegation

MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/. Russia maintains contact with Egypt for the formation of a Syrian opposition representative delegation based on the results of meetings of its separate groups in Moscow and in Cairo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

"We’ve held several meetings in Moscow on the results of which the opposition members, including with the participation of the Syrian government delegation at the last stage, adopted documents outlining their vision of a country they would want to live in," he said. "Egypt was working on this issue in parallel, several meeting of the opposition representatives were held in Cairo that also focused on the attempts at consolidating the opposition, various groups on the constructive platform of dialogue with a view to making political agreements on the Syrian crisis settlement."

"We now maintain contact with Egypt on how to unite these efforts and put forward proposals to the opposition forces on how we could help them create a unified delegation at the negotiations with the government," Lavrov said.

On Saturday, Lavrov said, "We do not want to take into account specific interests of [Syrian President] Bashar Assad, nor specific interests of the opposition." "We want to take into account the interests of Syria. And it is important for Syria to have a peaceful environment, end the war as soon as possible and not let the terrorists get a chance to seize power in Damascus or in any other part of Syria." Lavrov did not comment on the details of organising the visit of the Syrian president to Russia. "I will not go into detail," the Minister said. "What’s important is that the Syrian president visited Moscow and held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and safely returned home," he added.