Russia to take effort to establish political dialogue with US on Syria - upper house speaker

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. Russia will spare no effort to promote political dialogue with the United States on the Syrian problem, speaker of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house Valentina Matviyenko said on Monday. "Political dialogue is needed today and Russia is ready for such dialogue. We demonstrate openness, we are ready for dialogue," Matviyenko said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel. Regrettably, she noted, Russia doesn’t see that the United States is ready for such cooperation. "We will spare no effort to establish this dialogue with the United States and other our Western and Arab partners," she stressed. She called on the international community to create a law-based broad international coalition to counter the Islamic State and invited countries to join the information and coordination centre in Baghdad set up by Russia, Syria, Iran and Iraq. "We call to cooperate with the authorities of these countries, because efficient anti-terrorism efforts are impossible without the use of possibilities of the current authorities in these countries," she said. The upper house speaker said she was confident political reforms in Syria were possible only after the extermination of terrorism. "We also believe Syria needs reforms, a new constitution, changes in its political system and election laws. We are fellow-thinkers on those matters but the question is what is to be put before - a horse or the carriage," she noted. Political process, in her words, could be launched only after international terrorism was defeated and stability and peace were established in Syria. Read more