MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. Moscow believes it is necessary to give an extra impetus to all the existing Syrian settlement mechanisms to make them operate more efficiently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
"I see the importance of spurring up the operation of all mechanisms on Syria to make them more efficient," he said. "We see how efficient the Astana process works. Well, not without difficulties, because we have to look for balance between very contradictory interests. It is being done, slowly but steadily, because all who is taking part in these efforts think of how to stop the war in Syria and of how to free up forces and resources for the top priority - exterminating terrorism."
The minister touched upon the Geneva format, which has accumulated "critical mass to make it possible to establish, before long, a dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition based on the agreement on the de-escalation zones." According to Lavrov, much help comes from regional partners, especially Saudi Arabia, which came up with an initiative to unite Syrian opposition groups, namely the so-called High Negotiations Committee, the Moscow and the Cairo platforms.
"There is mechanism of two task forces in Geneva - on humanitarian issues and on the ceasefire," the Russian top diplomat noted. "As concerns chemical weapons (it is an absolutely inadmissible situation when such weapons are used), there is a joint investigative mechanism set up by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons."
"I am confident that if we take effort to ensure efficient and coordinated work of the existing mechanisms which involve each and every regional and off-region players, we will ultimately achieve the result," Lavrov stressed. "United Nations permanent members must feel their responsibility for the implementation of Resolution 2254."