MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. Saudi Arabia hopes that the Syrian opposition will form one delegation by the next round of intra-Syrian talks in Geneva, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told TASS.
"Unified delegation? - We hope so," he answered to the question whether the Syrian opposition would be capable of making up a unified delegation by the coming round of Geneva talks.
"The objective is if we want to implement 2254, we have to start the political process. And if we want the political process to be effective, we have to have a unified opposition," he said. "This is something we want and Russia wants, Egypt, US wants - all the countries in the International Syria Support Group."
The Saudi top diplomat pointed out that almost two years ago Saudi Arabia managed to unite some opposition groups (into the High Negotiations Committee, or HNC, - TASS).
"And now two years later, we have to do it again so that we can broaden participation of the opposition so it is more reflective of everybody and we can have one group that enters the talks," al-Jubeir said.
He added that Riyadh’s efforts do not run counter to Russia’s ones in that track, since Moscow is engaged in talks on unification prospects with representatives of diverse opposition groups.
"So there is no disagreement between us and Russia. In fact, Russia has been very supportive to our efforts to bring together different opposition groups, as have the Americans, as have the Europeans. So I think this would be positive step for moving political process forward," al-Jubeir said.
In August, Riyadh hosted talks among three key groups of the Syrian opposition - the so-called Moscow, Cairo and Riyadh ones - on a unified delegation. The next round of consultations is scheduled for October.