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Moscow and Cairo Prepare New Syria Negotiations
27 December 2014
EIRNS —Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said yesterday that talks between the Syrian government and the opposition could take place in Moscow some time between Jan. 20 and the end of that month, Associated Press reports. The first stage of the talks would bring together representatives of the Syria-based and the exile opposition, he said, and representatives of the Syrian government would join in the second stage. Additionally, a Dec. 25 press release from the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Mikhail Bogdanov, President Putin’s Special Representative for the Middle East and a Deputy Foreign Minister, had just met with Salih Muslim, Chairman of the (Syrian) Kurdish Democratic Union Party, the PYD. It said "the officials exchanged views on the situation in Syria and around it, and discussed Russia’s plan to hold preliminary consultations in Moscow, aimed at launching an eventual dialogue between the Syrian government and Syrian opposition forces based on the Geneva Communique of 30 June 2012." A day earlier, Bogdanov had met with Syria’s Ambassador to Moscow, Riyad Haddad, on the same subject, according to AP. Munzer Khaddam of the National Democratic Body for Democratic Change, part of the Syria-based opposition, told Agence France Presse on Dec. 24 that several opposition groups had been in talks for more than two months, and planned a "national gathering" in Cairo, followed by a second meeting in Moscow. He said that twelve opposition groups, as well as Kurdish officials and members of the exile "National Coalition," will join the Cairo meeting. Former "National Coalition" head Moaz al-Khatib has recently held talks with Russian officials in Moscow. EIR sources report that Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has kept U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry briefed on these plans. |