Minister: Syria intl forum likely to go ahead next month
MOSCOW. Oct 15 (Interfax) - The planned international conference on Syria, Geneva II, is likely to take place late in November, Syrian National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haydar has argued.
Haydar was speaking during an interview with Russia Today television after meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.
Haydar spoke highly of the meeting.
"First of all, loyalty was confirmed to the idea of a Geneva II," he said.
"Secondly, it was possible to overcome some obstacles in organizing the conference. I won't go into details now, I'll just mention that the obstacles had to do with setting the format for the participation of the opposition in the conference and with who would represent it," Haydar said.
"This has become the main issue since the United States and the West insist that the National Coalition is the only legitimate representative of the Syrian people," he said.
"This position raises questions. First of all, is the National Coalition really a legitimate representative of the Syrian people, and, secondly, is it really the only representative?" the minister said. Moreover, there have been objections to "some of the regional countries" taking part in the conference," he said.
"All these obstacles are getting overcome gradually," Haydar said. He said he expected that "Iran has been put on the list of states that will take part in it."
He said it was unclear to him whether the National Coalition would take part in Geneva II.
"The coalition, even if it does decide to take part, is not the only part of the Syrian opposition. The coalition will apparently have a long road to traverse in reorganizing itself and getting ready for participation in the conference," Haydar said.
However, "Geneva II is not the final point of the political process," he said.
"Many believe that all this conference can do is to find a way to break the bottleneck. But I think that we already managed to find such a way two months or more ago, namely launching a political process. Such a process is possible even if it doesn't bring together all the political opposition groups. Those who don't participate now would be able to join in the process later on," Haydar said.