Lavrov to take part in talks of Syria Support Group and UN Security Council meeting

NEW YORK, December 18. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take part in New York on Friday in talks of the international Syria Support Group and in a meeting of the UN Security Council that is expected to adopt a resolution fixing the results of the multilateral negotiations on the Syrian crisis settlement. The Russian foreign minister earlier this week expressed support for the Syria Support Group negotiations in New York. "We expect that on the basis of its results and with the consent of all participants an agreement will be achieved to submit to the UN Security Council a draft resolution that would uphold all the principles contained in the Vienna documents, in particular, the Vienna statements of October 30 and November 14, 2015," Lavrov said on Wednesday. Preparatory visit The settlement of the conflict in Syria through political dialogue among all the sides, except for terrorists, was discussed during the December 15 visit to Russia by US Secretary of State John Kerry. In practical terms, one of the main tasks of the ministerial-level talks in the Russian capital and the following meeting of the American secretary of state with Russian President Vladimir Putin was the preparation for the meeting of Syria Support Group. Moscow clearly indicated that it sees no need in "a conference just for the conference’s sake." Lavrov strongly emphasized the importance of the work on drawing up the lists of the opposition and the terrorists in Syria for the forum’s success. Russia's position was taken into account: the Russian foreign minister said after Kerry’s visit that "the sides confirmed the Vienna agreements based on the 2012 Geneva Communique," Lavrov said. According to him, the sides agreed to go ahead with compiling a single list of terrorist organizations - where great progress has already been made - and helping the United Nations to form a Syrian opposition delegation. The Russian foreign minister added that the opposition delegation should be representative and should be ready to negotiate constructively with the Syrian government delegation along the principles approved by the International Syria Support Group. Russia not to agree to determining Syrian government from outside Russia’s fundamental approaches to the Syrian crisis settlement were outlined in detail by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his annual big news conference on Thursday. He said the Syrian problem can be solved only through political means, and the Russian plan in this regard is almost the same as the American. "There is no other way to resolve this situation. This has to be done sooner or later," he said, adding, "better sooner than later." The president also said, "On the whole - and I will probably say an important thing now - we support the initiative of the United States, including on working out a resolution of the UN Security Council on Syria," he said. "It is this draft resolution that US Secretary of State (John Kerry) came to Moscow with," he added. The president said that in the first place joint work was needed on a new constitution of Syria, after which a credible mechanism of control over the possible future elections should be created. "And then, on the basis of these very democratic procedures, Syria must determine itself what forms of government are more acceptable there and who should be at the head of the country," he said. Putin drew particular attention to the inadmissibility of attempts to dictate the terms of the settlement to the Syrians from the outside. "We will never agree for someone from the outside to force any leader upon anyone anywhere," Putin said. "This runs absolutely counter to common sense and international law," he said. Regional factors Over the month passed since the previous Syria Support Group meeting, there have been some changes in the situation around Syria, which will obviously be discussed in the negotiations, and which may affect their outcome. First, Saudi Arabia announced the establishment of an Islamic coalition against terrorists in Syria. Saudi Arabia announced the formation of a 34-state Islamic military coalition to combat terrorism, according to a statement released by the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Tuesday. "The countries here mentioned have decided on the formation of a military alliance led by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism, with a joint operations centre based in Riyadh to coordinate and support military operations," the statement says. The new coalition includes many Arab countries such as Egypt, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, together with Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan and African states. The announcement cited "a duty to protect the Islamic nation from the evils of all terrorist groups and organisations, whatever their sect and name, which wreak death and corruption on earth and aim to terrorise the innocent." Lavrov said in this regard that Russia would analyse the role of this format in countering terror. According to the Russian minister, the coalition has the potential to launch a broad process of interfaith dialogue for the solution of this problem, as well as for combating extremists in the ideological sphere. Another important aspect in the development of the political settlement process in Syria was the conference of part of the Syrian opposition on December 8-10, held in Riyadh. It was attended by representatives of groups that are either outside the country or fighting against the government of Bashar Assad. They announced ono the meeting results the creation of a delegation for negotiations with the government, but again demanded that the Syrian incumbent president step down. Commenting on the results of the meeting in Riyadh, Lavrov said that it was only one of the steps in the formation of the opposition delegation, because many other groups of Assad’s opponents were not invited to Saudi Arabia. The US secretary of state also said the meeting’s outcome raised certain questions. Read more