All news

Syrian government delegation head, de Mistura discuss fight against terrorism

GENEVA, March 2. /TASS/. The meeting with UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, was dedicated to discussing substantive issues, including the war on terror, head of the Syrian government delegation and Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, said on Thursday following consultations with de Mistura.

"The dialogue was meaningful. We spoke about the fight against terrorism, among other issues," he said.

Jaafari rejected information provided by some sources that de Mustura refuses to include the war on terror in the agenda of the Geneva negotiations. "We have not heard from de Mistura that he personally is opposed to adding the fourth basket, namely, the fight against terrorism to the agenda of the talks," he noted.

The discussion of the possibility of direct talks between the Syrian government and the opposition will become possible when the latter unites thus showing the seriousness of its intentions, he went on.

"Let them unite first to demonstrate their seriousness, and then we shall see what our next steps should be like," he said.

Jaafari noted, however, that the government expects to keep up the dialogue with the patriotic opposition, which seeks no help from abroad to achieve its goals. "Some of the members of the Riyadh group’s delegation are terrorists, some of them are fighting alongside Turkey, which occupied our territories in the north of the country," he added.