Russian Foreign Ministry, UN Under-Secretary-General discuss Syrian settlement issues
MOSCOW. Oct 16 (Interfax) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov and UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman discussed the situation in Syria and talked about developing ways for political and diplomatic conflict settlement on Wednesday in Moscow.
The sides are united about the passing of the UN Security Council Resolution 2118 which creates the necessary political and legal frames to put the Syrian chemical weapons arsenal under international control with their further destruction as well as to launch inter-Syrian dialog, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Thus, it is necessary to call the Geneva II international conference on Syria on the basis of the Geneva communique of June 30, 2012, the statement said.
"In particular, the importance of forming such an opposition delegation, which would reflect interests of various groups and strata of the Syrian society taking into account its multi-confessional character, has been emphasized," the document said.
According to the information of the Foreign Ministry, "the necessity to include Iran in the circle of main foreign participants of the conference has been noted." One of the main tasks of the conference is to merge the efforts of the government and the opposition in order to fight the growing terrorist threat in Syria, the statement said.
Gatilov and Feltman have also discussed the situation in Afghanistan, including amid the withdrawal of the international forces from the country in late 2014.
The opinions about the Iranian nuclear program with the emphasis on the fact that political and diplomatic approaches are the only alternative to resolve these issues have been exchanged, the document said.
