Moscow is ready to receive the Syrian opposition and work with it

The Russian special envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, said yesterday, Wednesday, “We are ready to receive the Syrian opposition and work with it, whether in Moscow or in various other regions in the world.”

This came in a press conference held after the end of the “Astana 15” meetings, which were held in the Russian city of Sochi
Lavrentiev added, “We are ready to support the efforts of UN envoy Geir Pedersen to push for the constitutional committee, and he has the opportunity to discuss the issue in Moscow and Damascus and to formulate mechanisms for the conduct of the constitutional process,” he said.

He stressed that his country is convinced that the result of the intensive consultations that Pederson is conducting will succeed in converging views and reaching tangible agreements and understandings. The goals of building confidence and reaching solutions that satisfy all parties must be worked on.

Lavrentiyev added, “Russia will do its best in this direction, and the parties have begun the dialogue on the constitutional committee, although not directly, it will be gathered to adopt decisions. We hope that Pedersen will push the parties to greater flexibility and reach positive results,” as he put it.

Regarding the field situation in Idlib, Russia’s special envoy to Syria said that Moscow is ready to consolidate calm in Idlib and relies on the moderate opposition, which is a large force and has the capabilities to push terrorist components out of Idlib.

He explained that they are “against politicizing the refugee issue and obstructing the voluntary return of them,” noting that “the White Helmets are preparing a new provocation with chemicals against civilians, which will lead to new accusations against the Syrian regime (the Assad regime) and punish it.”

Source: Anatolia