MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. Russia has met its commitments in full on arranging the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva and it is wrong to accuse Moscow of undermining the process, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
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"Our American colleagues act in an absolutely wrong way by accusing us even of disrupting the Geneva talks," Zakharova said. "The opposition and representatives of the official authorities that Russia worked with were the first ones to arrive in Geneva. We did our job irreproachably," she stressed.
Zakharova stressed that Russia did everything it possibly could to organize the dialogue. "Without preconditions, without blackmail, people arrived to do constructive work," she added.
"What we saw on the part of the other opposition group, backed by Riyadh, is left without comments," Zakharova said. "We saw what hard work it was for the US to push them in Geneva using almost manual guidance. There were caprices, the endless striking an attitude and this ended the way it ended."
Russia and US share common understanding of final goal in Syria
According to Zakharova, Russia and the United States have reached common understanding of final goals in Syria but it is necessary to develop practical cooperation.
"At the moment, we share understanding of the final goal - it is political settlement in Syria. This is very important. We also share understanding that terrorist threat exists," Zakharova said.
She noted that Russia supports not only aligning approaches but also practical actions. "We can and we must cooperate as close as the United States is ready. We are absolutely ready for this, in the framework of fighting terrorism. We have been telling our American partners this for several months through diplomatic and military channels at all levels," she added.
"Cooperation should be close and more comprehensive. One agreement on preventing conflicts in the air is not enough," the diplomat said. "One thing is to prevent crashes, and another thing is to fully cooperate in fighting against common threat," Zakharova concluded.
The intra-Syrian negotiations that began in Geneva in early February were suspended days later until February 25. UN Special Envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura said that the sides had focused on discussing procedural issues rather than on the solution of certain tasks.