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PRESS RELEASE
Russia’s Syria Policy Still Based on Geneva Communique of 2012
24 September 2015
EIRNS—Moscow set out its political objectives in Syria, yesterday, with some clarity, in case there was still some confusion. "We are not going to put forward any new ideas to the UN [for a political settlement in Syria]," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said, yesterday, in Moscow, reports Tass.
He said that the communique "remains the main basis for a political settlement". He noted that it "outlines all necessary measures and steps" and also "highlights the need to start dialogue" between Syria’s warring sides. "If there is goodwill between conflicting parties and those external players who are able to steer them in the right direction, then good prospects exist for a political settlement." Therefore, if the US does not agree that the Syrian people themselves should decide their future, it should withdraw its signature from the communique, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, this morning. "The Geneva communique says that political future of Syria must be determined by the Syrian people themselves," she said. "Then, probably, the U.S. should state that it is retracting the signature to the Geneva communique. Then we will be able to understand what their next move will be," she added.
Zakharova added. The Geneva Communique, signed on June 30, 2012, by representatives of the US, Russia, China, Britain, and then UN special envoy Kofi Annan, provides, among other things, for a transitional governing body that will provide space for a political settlement of the conflict. Nowhere in the document does it say that President Bashar al Assad must leave office. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted at the signing of the document that it required him to go, an assertion that was immediately contradicted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. |