Lavrov Calls for Syria Dialogue, Opposition Says No Shift in Moscow Stance

Local Editor

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Syrians to hold dialogue, as the opposition said that Moscow refused to shift its position on the Syrian crisis.

Lavrov meeting Syrian opposition

Meeting the Istanbul Council delegation visiting Moscow, Lavrov said, "We want to understand the prospects of uniting opposition factions on the basis of dialogue with the Syrian Government according to the plan of UN Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan."
"Supporting Annan's plan emphasizes Russia's commitment to the necessity of ending violence with all its forms and from all sides as soon as possible, as well as moving to a dialogue in which the Syrian Government and all opposition factions take part," Lavrov added.

For its part, the opposition Syria National Council (SNC) said following the meeting it had failed to persuade Moscow to accept the idea that President Bashar al-Assad should cede power.

"We confirm, in the name of the Syrian opposition, that there cannot be talk of a solution until Assad quits power," SNC chief Abdel Basset Sayda told reporters after the meeting at the Russian foreign ministry.

"Russia has a different position on this issue," he added.

Burhan Ghalioun, SNC executive committee member and its former chief who held similar talks in Moscow last year, added that there was no sign of any change in the Russian position.
"We have not seen a development in the Russian position. I was here one year ago and the position has not changed," he told reporters.

‘OUTSIDE INTERVENTION’

SNC chief Abdel Basset Sayda

The Syrian National Council has repeatedly said it had “no patience” with the idea of a political transition that would include members of the current regime.

Sayda said the “best solution” would be outside intervention approved by the UN Security Council in which Russia would take part.

"Political negotiations and consultations only give Assad more time for a military solution to suppress the revolution," he said.

Meanwhile, SNC member Munzer Makhos said the opposition now understood the Russian position better after the talks.

"But Moscow has not changed its position. Moscow believes that Assad is still supported by the majority of the Syrian people," he said.

Source: Agencies	11-07-2012 - 16:48 Last updated 11-07-2012 - 16:48

SNC's amateurs compare their feats in Syria to the "biggest geopilitical catastrophe of the Century"!

"The exile Syrian National Council was invited to Moscow and when there tried to convince the Russian of their cause. The way they did it shows a grotesque and amateurish stupidity.
Russia needs to understand that the conflict in Syria is not a dispute between the opposition and regime but a revolution, the chief of the main exiled opposition group said in Moscow on Wednesday.
“The events in Syria are not disagreements between the opposition and the government but a revolution,” Syrian National Council (SNC) chief Abdul Basset Sayda told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, comparing the events in his country to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
To set fall of the Soviet Union, which wasn't caused by revolution but by the wrangling within the political leadership, as an example for Syria's future will have convinced all Russians to double their effort to stand by the Syrian government. Here is why: 

Speaking to the nation in his annual address, Putin used some of his strongest language to describe his country's fate over the past 14 years.

"The collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century," Putin said. "For the Russian people, it became a real drama. Tens of millions of our citizens and countrymen found themselves outside Russian territory. The epidemic of disintegration also spread to Russia itself."

That the fall of the Soviet Union was a catastrophe is not only Putin's opinion:

"It is very clear that for the great majority of Russian people, the disintegration of the Soviet Union was a personal catastrophe," [Boris] Kagarlitskii[, the director of the Institute of Globalization Studies in Moscow,] said. "It was also a catastrophe for a tremendous majority of people in Tajikistan, quite a lot of people in Uzbekistan, and so on, including many people in Ukraine. Because families were divided, people's lives were ruined, living standards collapsed, the minimal standards of human justice, and very often of freedom, were also neglected."

That is indeed also the likely the perspective for the majority of Syrians should the western sponsored insurgency win.
To remind the Russians of that is the most dumb thing the SNC chief could have done in Moscow. Putin's support, and that of the Russian people, for the Syrian government may well increase after this SNC lecture."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 2:14 PM

 

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