Russia reaches out to Syrian opposition

Moscow: Russia’s foreign minister says Moscow has proposed talks with the main Syrian opposition coalition, despite previous Russian criticism of Western countries’ recognition of the group.

Sergei Lavrov told a news conference on Friday that Russia has contacted the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces through the Russian Embassy in Egypt and “we expressed readiness to conduct a meeting” with coalition leader Mouaz Al Khatib.

The statement comes in the wake of comments by officials, including President Vladimir Putin, that suggest Russia is resigned to its longtime ally Syrian President Bashar Assad losing power.

The opposition coalition was formed in November and recognised by Western and Gulf countries as legitimate representatives of the Syrian people. Russia has criticised such recognition as running counter to agreements to seek political transition in Syria.

The country also urged the Syrian government to act on its stated readiness for dialogue with its opponents, throwing its weight behind the diplomatic push to end a 21-month-old conflict in Syria.

Lavrov said he had urged Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Makdad to emphasise his government’s openness to dialogue with the opposition during talks in Moscow on Thursday.

“We actively encouraged... the Syrian leadership to make as concrete as possible its declared readiness for dialogue with the opposition,” Lavrov told reporters after talks with his Egyptian counterpart Mohammad Kamel Amr in Moscow.

He said the Syrian government should stress its readiness for talks on the widest possible range of matters, in line with an international agreement in Geneva last June calling for a transitional government.

“I think a realistic and detailed assessment of the situation inside Syria will prompt reasonable opposition members to seek ways to start a political dialogue,” added Lavrov, who last week said that neither side would win by force.

Russia expects to meet a senior US diplomat on Syria next month to discuss with international Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi his plans to end the civil war there, the Kremlin’s envoy to the region said earlier on Friday.

Brahimi will visit Moscow on Saturday for talks on the results of his negotiations with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and his opponents during a five-day trip to Damascus in which he called for political change to end the bloodshed.

“We will listen to what Lakhdar Brahimi has to say about the situation in Syria and after that, probably, there will be a decision to hold a new meeting of the ‘three Bs’,” Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the RIA news agency — in a word play on the first letter of the diplomats’ last names.

Bogdanov, US Undersecretary of State William Burns and Brahimi, the joint special representative of the United Nations and the Arab League, agreed that a political solution to the crisis was necessary and possible in talks earlier this month.

Bogdanov, the Kremlin’s special envoy for Middle East Affairs, said the three would meet again in January after the holiday period.

What role Assad and members of his government might play in a transitional body — a plan outlined in Geneva six months ago — has divided world powers.

On the ground in Syria, regime warplanes launched air raids in Damascus province on Friday after overnight bombardments and clashes across the country, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said.

“The air force for the first time attacked the Assal Al Ward area in the Kalamun region, killing one civilian, wounding dozens and destroying several homes,” the Britain-based group said in a statement.

It said the military on Thursday withdrew from several areas in the province but that further air raids were expected as regime forces sought to take back areas they had lost after rebel attacks on military checkpoints.

The Observatory, which relies on a countrywide network of activists and medics in compiling its information and tolls, also reported fighting and bombardment in several districts of the capital itself overnight.