MOSCOW – Syria has agreed to take part in Moscow-mediated talks on solving the country’s crisis, the Russian foreign ministry has said, calling on the Syrian opposition to join the negotiations.
However, a senior member of the Syrian opposition council said that no invitation had been received from Moscow and that if it were it would be refused.
Moscow, a permanent UN Security Council member with veto powers, has offered to host the talks in an effort to end the bloodshed since protests began 10 months ago against President Bashar al-Assad.
Moscow’s offer of talks may be an attempt to strengthen its arguments against a Western draft resolution at the Security Council supporting an Arab League call for Dr Assad to cede power. Russia has said that Dr Assad’s resignation must not be a precondition for the Syrian peace process.
It has remained one of Dr Assad’s few allies and has supplied him with arms and ammunition.
Moscow has repeatedly said Dr Assad’s opponents share the blame for the bloodshed. It fears a Western resolution could be interpreted broadly enough to lead to a Libyan-style military intervention, which Russia says it will not allow.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov reiterated that Moscow would not support the Western draft, which he said appeared quite similar to the French-inspired Security Council peace initiative condemning Damascus.
Russia submitted its own resolution in December, but Western diplomats said they could not accept Russian wording assigning blame to the government and the opposition for the violence. – (Reuters)