Syrian authorities agree to talks in Moscow

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syrian authorities have accepted Russia’s proposal to meet with the opposition in Moscow, but the opposition is yet to give its consent, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday, Jan 30.

“Our invitation has already received a positive response from the Syrian authorities. We expect that the opposition will give its answer in the next few days,” the ministry said in a statement, RIA Novosti reported.

Meanwhile, a senior Syrian opposition member told Reuters they had received no formal invitation from Russia.

"We have not received any offer like that officially and I think, if such an offer exists, it will be no more than an attempt to influence the [UN] Security Council. But I say clearly that our position has not changed and it is that there is no dialogue with (President Bashar al-Assad)," the agency quoted Abdel Baset Seda, a member of the Syrian council's executive committee, as saying.

Russia has been one of Assad’s staunchest supporters during the ten-month-long uprising against his regime. Moscow has proposed its own draft UN resolution on Syria, but Western members of the Security Council have criticized it as too soft.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he will visit New York on Tuesday to persuade Security Council members to adopt a draft resolution on Syria. The draft, proposed by Morocco, echoes the Western-backed resolution on Syria vetoed by Russia and China last October.

Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said on Saturday Moscow rejected the draft on the grounds that it cannot serve “a basis on which we can agree.”

According to French Foreign Ministry’s official spokesman, Bernard Valero, Juppe will attend a ministerial meeting organized by the Arab League to bring together ministers from other Security Council members and Arab states.

"We should get this document adopted. The ministerial meeting may contribute to it,” Valero said.

The aim of the meeting is to discuss a report from the Arab League, whose observers have been working in Syria since late December.