SPEAKING in Moscow, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said said on Thursday that the ‘international community’ has to decide with whom it will stand by in Syria.
He continued that the West had to decide whether to stand with those who want ‘forced regime change’ or those who want to resolve the crisis through dialogue.
Russia will insist on the participation of Iran in the international conference on Syria to be held in Geneva.
Lavrov also said they are waiting for results from the investigations in Ankara regarding foreign-backed ‘rebel’ gunmen caught with sarin gas in their possession.
Meanwhile, a tripartite meeting including Russia, the US and the UN started in Geneva on Wednesday to further the preparations for the international conference on Syria.
The meeting brought together Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman, and UN Envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi.
Brahimi is accompanied by UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman.
The meeting aims at discussing preparations to hold an international conference on Syria, as agreed by Russian FM Lavrov, and US Secretary of State, John Kerry, agreed early in May, which has been called ‘Geneva-2’ and would include representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition.
Speaking to the media after the preparatory meeting, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said that the conference will not be held before July, but a second consultative meeting to prepare for it will be held in June, after agreement is reached over all issues related to it.
He said that the issues that still need to be discussed will be addressed in a second tripartite meeting between Russia, the UN and the US, adding that so far these talks had reached no agreement as to the list of participants in Geneva-2, indicating that this issue remains the biggest sticking point.
He said: ‘Contrary to the Syrian government, the opposition has not yet decided officially whether it will take part in the conference.
‘Another important point is that the opposition does not have a clear vision as regards its delegation.
‘Our partners, especially the Americans, have to exert efforts to convince the opposition to form a unified delegation. Otherwise, numerous opposition delegations will attend the conference.’
Referring to Western leaders, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Bogdanov, said in an interview: ‘I think that over more than two years of war, the eyes of many of them opened to see it is a bloody dead-end with no exit but through starting political dialogue between the Syrians themselves with our support.’
He said the tripartite consultations on Syria would focus on the participation of the Syrian government and the opposition in the upcoming international conference, noting that he and Deputy Foreign Minister Gatilov will meet representatives of the so-called Syrian opposition in Geneva.
Bogdanov added: ‘The international parties agreed that there shouldn’t be any preconditions regarding the participation of the Syrian government and the opposition in the conference.’
He pointed out that there could be a unified delegation for the opposition or several delegations in case the opposition failed to agree on a list of representatives.
Russia is waiting for America to clarify its stance with regard to Iran’s participation in the international conference on Syria.
Iran’s participation is vital for Russia, Bogdanov said on Wednesday: ‘This is a matter of principle because the composition of the conference should be balanced.
‘We think the fact that Iran did not participate in Geneva-1 was a mistake and it should not be repeated. Iranians and other influential external players should be invited to the conference.’
He added: ‘Tomorrow we will listen to our American partners, and it is natural that we will present the logical basics behind our stance that are in support of the participation of Iran and some other regional players.’
He said Egypt and some Gulf states neighbouring Syria are countries which Russia would like to attend the conference.
‘Some other states from the Arab and Islamic world might join the conference, such as Algeria for instance.’
On the possibility that exporting S-300 missiles to Syria could negatively affect Russia’s relations with Israel, he said: ‘What regards Israel was reviewed during Netanyahu’s visit to Russia.
‘Contacts are still under way, and I believe that we should understand each other and hope that there will be understanding from the Israeli side.’
Commenting on Israeli officials’ statements that Israel ‘knows what it will do’ if Syria received S-300 missiles, Bogdanov said: ‘The Israeli prime minister has corrected his ministers’ position.’
Netanyahu had previously given orders to Israeli officials not to comment on the issue of exporting S-300 missiles to Syria.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gatilov said Moscow doubts the possibility that the UN experts could conduct a rapid investigation into reports that chemical weapons have been used in the course of the crisis in Syria.
He stressed: ‘The issue on the chemical weapons is politicised to a such a large extent that there could be no hope that anything concerning the experts’ evaluation could happen soon.’
He noted that such an investigation was secondary to the preparation to hold the international conference on Syria.
As for investigation into relevant news on confiscated chemical materials in Turkey that were bound for the Syrian opposition, Gatilov said: ‘This is unlikely right now because sending experts from the UN to Turkey requires its government’s approval.’
He noted that Russia will not raise the issue of the US’s plans to deploy Patriot missile systems, adding that the reports on deployment of Patriot missiles would complicate the situation, ‘which is why we should talk about the need to start the political process’.
For his part, the UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, told a press conference following Wednesday’s meeting: ‘It is not possible to hold the international conference in June, it will be held in July.
‘We are holding the necessary preparations to convene the conference. I am very happy of the nature of constructive talks run today.’
Brahimi added: ‘We will intensify work during the two coming weeks and we will meet here on June 25th. We agreed that the Geneva conference will be convened under the patronage of the UN Secretary General, Russia and the US.’
He noted that the aim of the conference is to achieve a political solution to the crisis in Syria through a comprehensive agreement between the Syrian government and ‘the opposition’ to carry out Geneva Communiqué issued on June 30th, 2012.
‘The situation in Syria is tragic and I believe it is embarrassing for us not to hold this conference,’ Brahimi admitted.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich had criticised plans to deploy Patriot missile systems in the neighbouring countries of Syria, including Jordan, after such systems were deployed in Turkey.
