GENEVA, May 17. /TASS/. Foreign troops could be pulled out of Syria as result of the talks finding a political solution, Muhannad Dleikan, head of the Syrian opposition’s ‘Moscow Group,’ said on Wednesday.
"We strongly feel that the situation ‘on the ground’ has a bearing on the entire world since the Syrian conflict brings together all the forces from around the entire world," he said. "About the foreign interference in Syria, we think that all the foreign forces need to leave Syria but it could be achieved through political talks."
External support to parties to the Syrian conflict remains one of the most acute issues at the intra-Syrian talks. Representatives of the main Syrian opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), claim that Iranian armed formations are fighting in Syria and demand their withdrawal. Syria’s government accuses Saudi Arabia and Turkey of backing terrorists.
"We think that the Syria crisis is bigger that all the politicians here - both from the government and opposition," he said. "We want them to be more positive towards all the platforms that ware present in Geneva since there are positive people in all the platforms who are willing to work together."
Dleikan added that most issues dividing opposition groups are technical ones related to the priority of some issues on the agenda of discussions.
"However, we are working to remove those discrepancies," he said.
"We believe that one delegation representing the entire opposition is needed to come to direct talks. And we are expecting such a delegation," Dleikan said in conclusion.
"We accepted the initiative with a positive spirit and called for its further development, namely to set up four special committees responsible for four aspects of the talks, which means to come to direct talks after their work is complete," Dleikan said.
Along with this, the politician was alarmed that de Mistura’s proposal placed an accent on just one issue agreed for talks.
"We are alarmed that just one item on the agenda was in focus. We have reiterated that the work at Geneva talks should go ahead in line with UN Security Council’s Resolution 2254 on Syria," he added.
On Tuesday, the ‘Moscow Group’ delegation and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov discussed the agenda of the talks at the meeting, he said.
"At the meeting, our positions were determined," he noted. "We underscored that it is crucial to move ahead (in discussions) on all the four items simultaneously."
The head of the ‘Moscow Group’ was hopeful that this round of talks would be a success.
"We expect that a concrete step will be made on the way to a political solution," Dleikan went on to say. "It is not going to be a breakthrough, but we are certain it will be significant."