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Middle East and North Africa

Lavrov: Geneva-2 conference should represent Syria’s all society

MOSCOW, December 14, 13:38 /ITAR-TASS/. The final contact on preparations for Geneva-2 between the Russian Federation, the US, UN, involving other permanent members of the UN Security Council, the League of Arab States and Turkey is due in Geneva on December 20, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

However, the minister said, the situation with the Syrian coalition was unclear.

“Surely, we support the efforts, which Americans, following their obligations, have been undertaking to persuade the opposition to attend the conference without unacceptable preconditions, and we also have been working not only with Syria’s government, but with all the oppositionists, including the National Coalition /NC/,” he said.

“We have only one benchmark - the Security Council’s resolution 2118, which confirmed the chemical disarmament in Syria,” the foreign minister said. “The process continues well, and we do not expect any failures there. That very resolution also supports organisation of Geneva-2, stressing the dialogue should feature representatives of the entire spectrum of the Syrian society. Thus, all the opposition should be represented at a decent level, not by only one structure, which may be doubtful because of the confusions and hesitations inside whenever Geneva-2 is being discussed.

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Middle East and North Africa Foreign policy

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