Russia’s Sergei Lavrov says Friends of Syria meeting unnecessary

PanARMENIAN.Net -

Russia does not consider it necessary to call other forums to resolve the Syrian problem after the Geneva conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, July 3, according to RIA Novosti.

The Geneva Process, which formed “a group for action” on Syria, started on June 30.

"I think that after the start of the Geneva Process, in which 150 states are taking part, the need fell away for other formats such as the one in Paris," Lavrov said.

The U.S.-led Friends of Syria group is meeting in Paris on July 6. Russia has refused to be part of the group since its conception in February.

Russia insists that the Friends of Syria is detrimental to peaceful settlement of the political crisis in Syria as on the whole its activities are directed at finding various loops to overthrow the current regime of President Bashar al-Assad, instead of scrupulously implementing Kofi Annan’s peace plan.

The Geneva conference of foreign ministers of the "action group," which includes the Western powers and Russia and China, on Saturday supported creation of a "transitional government body with full executive powers" in Syria, proposed by UN and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan.