Lavrov and Syrian opposition discuss Putin’s anti-terror initiative - Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, August 31 /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday met Hasan Abdel Azim, the general coordinator of the Executive Office of the National Coordination Committee for the Forces of Democratic Change (NCC); representatives of the leadership of the Popular Front for Change and Liberation and the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union as well as members of the Assyrian community. "On behalf of a group, which observes the implementation of an appeal to the U.N. secretary-general made by participants in the second round of inter-Syrian consultations held in Moscow, the Syrian opposition members praised Russia for its political and diplomatic efforts exerted in the interests of reaching a peaceful settlement in Syria via the inter-Syrian dialogue without any foreign interference on the basis of provisions of the Geneva communique dated June 30, 2012," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "In this context and in a bid to promote the inter-Syrian consultations held in Moscow in January and April 2015, the sides considered concrete steps in the interests of unifying the Syrian opposition on a constructive basis for the purpose of working out the general platform for a meaningful dialogue with the Syrian government," the Russian Foreign Ministry went on to say. Lavrov, in turn, told the Syrian opposition members about Russia’s efforts to implement the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin to form a broad anti-terror coalition that will unite the Syrian and Iraqi armies, detachments of moderate Syrian opposition, the Kurdish volunteer forces and the main regional and international players involved in the Syrian conflict in the interests of joint counteraction to the growing terrorist threat," the ministry stressed. The representatives of Syrian opposition also had consultations with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, the Russian president’s special representative for the Middle East and Africa, held at the Russian Foreign Ministry. Read more