West wants to limit participants of coming conference on Syria, to virtually determine result - Lavrov
MOSCOW. May 16 (Interfax) - Russia is opposed to attempts of some western countries to limit the number of participants at the international conference on Syria, which follows the Geneva meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"Certain western colleagues - this emerged during talks with [UK Prime Minister] David Cameron in Sochi - have a desire to limit the choice of external participants and to begin the process with a very small group of countries, in the framework of which negotiating terms, an agenda and maybe even results of the talks would be virtually determined. And then, if to follow the logic of our western colleagues, proposals would be given to the Syrian government and opposition and everyone would start pressuring both to implement the scheme developed without the participation of the Syrian people," the Russian Foreign Ministry quoted Lavrov as saying in an interview with Libyan TV channel Al Mayadeen.
Lavrov said that Moscow would have liked for such things "to not be done privately but with the participation of regional countries."
"External players should not decide for the Syrian people but should stimulate the government and all opposition groups so that they start agreeing between themselves. This is the difference," he said.
Moscow thinks it is wrong when external players are involved in "social and political engineering" and are drawing up schemes for the Syrian people, Lavrov said.
The Russian foreign minister said that Russia assumed that all participants of the meeting in Geneva on June 30, 2012 plus two key players, which were not in Geneva last year - Iran and Saudi Arabia - should be invited to this conference.
"We would also be glad to see Jordan, Lebanon and all Syria's neighbors. It is impossible to exclude such a country as Iran from this process due to geopolitical preferences. This is a very important external player. But there is also no agreement on this topic yet," Lavrov said.
Lavrov said that it was important to have a negotiating team from the Syrian government. "A day before [U.S. Secretary of State] John Kerry's visit, I called my colleague, Syrian Foreign Minister [Walid] Muallem and asked him again whether the committee, established for enhancing dialogue and reforms and headed by the Syrian prime minister, was authorized to hold talks with the opposition. I was told that it was. Now we will wait and see how quickly and effectively the other side (those to whom the opposition listens more) could get the same reaction from opposition activists: here is our negotiating team and it represents all opposition forces, it has all relevant authority," Lavrov said.