Participants of inter-Syrian talks start to listen to each other by end of first round
MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax) - Russia does not consider the first round of the inter-Syrian talks in Geneva to be unsuccessful, Russian permanent representative to the Geneva headquarters of the UN and other international organizations Alexei Borodavkin said.
Borodavkin said in Arabic in an interview with the RT TV channel that he did not consider the first round to be unsuccessful and that the parties have reached at the talks what could be reached, namely completing the round and agreeing to continue the talks.
The first round of the talks has not lived up to expectations and, indeed, no ground-breaking or positive decisions have been made, unfortunately, Borodavkin said.
But if to assess realistically what has been achieved, then the fact that the parties of the Syrian conflict did sit at the negotiating table and started a dialog, this can be listed as positive, Borodavkin said. The parties held dialog until the completion of the first round of talks on January 31 and confirmed after this that they will return to Geneva and will continue negotiating on February 10, he said.
Moscow thinks that by the end of the first round the parties have stopped accusing and criticizing each other and have started to listen to each other, Borodavkin said.
Additional efforts should be made prior to the second round of the Geneva II, which is planned for February 10, in order to expand the composition of the opposition delegation and to increase its representativeness via other groups of those opposed to the current Syrian authorities, Borodavkin said.
