Lavrov has no doubt de Mistura will form representative opposition delegation for intra-Syrian negotiations

ZURICH, January 20 /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday he had no doubt that U.N. Special Envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura would be able to form a maximum representative opposition delegation for the intra-Syrian negotiations. Asked to comment if Moscow and Washington had reached an agreement on participation of the Ahrar ash-Sham and Jaish al-Islam groups in the intra-Syrian negotiations, Lavrov said, "We can say that there is no such agreement because it was not even supposed to be." "The U.N. Security Council Resolution (2254) obliges Staffan de Mistura to dispatch invitations /to the intra-Syrian talks/ on behalf of the United Nations secretary-general and prepare the list of invited persons. He should be guided, among other things, by the results of meetings, which the opposition circles had had in Moscow, Al Riyadh and Cairo, as well as other initiatives as it is written down in the U.N. resolution," the Russian foreign minister stressed. "We presented our wishes and vision of who should be included in a delegation for the negations in its time. The Americans have done the same. De Mistura is studying and assessing all the documents. There is no doubt he will form a delegation, which will represent a maximum broad spectrum of Syrian society," the Russian foreign minister said. Read more