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"Friends of Syria" meeting unilateral, against peaceful settlement: Russia

02 April 2012 23:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The second "Friends of Syria" conference was unilateral and adverse to a peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"According to coming reports, unfortunately, the Istanbul meeting took place on a unilateral basis," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, adding that neither the Syrian government nor influential groups of the Syrian political opposition were represented at the meeting.

The "Friends of Syria" group’s intention to provide direct support to the armed opposition would definitely run counter to a peaceful settlement of the civil conflict in the Middle East country, she said.

The spokeswoman also said: "We should not incite violence among Syrians, but should seek and ensure a prompt ceasefire and end to the violence from all sides, establish a broad Syrian dialogue, and find solutions acceptable to all Syrians."

"Moscow believes it is of significance to focus on support for all Syrian parties without any exception in a bid to implement (UN and Arab League joint envoy) Kofi Annan’s proposals," she stressed.

Also on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a meeting with his Armenian counterpart in Yerevan that Russia preferred to be "a friend to the whole Syrian people."

"We were also invited to take part in the (Istanbul) meeting. We rejected the invitation for the easiest reason," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the Itar-Tass news agency. "If we talk about the interests of the Syrian people, all parties, as well as all groups of the opposition, should be represented."

Representatives from scores of countries attended the second " Friends of Syria" conference in Istanbul on Sunday, recognizing the opposition Syrian National Council as a legitimate representative of all Syrians and an umbrella organization for Syrian opposition groups.

Russia refused to attend the meeting because it believed the group was paving the way for foreign intervention. Moscow also boycotted the group’s first meeting in February.