Syrian official says Damascus open to dialogue with opposition
MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax) - The Russian president's envoy for the Middle East, Mikhail Bogdanov, who is a deputy foreign minister, met with Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to the Syrian president, on Monday.
"The principal attention during the conversation was paid to developments in Syria, to the situation surrounding the Syria issue, and to the search for ways of helping find a political solution to the protracted crisis. Bogdanov familiarized Shaaban in detail with Russian efforts to that end, including the promotion of the initiative to convene an international conference on Syria as a way to ensure the implementation of Kofi Annan's plan, which has been approved by the UN Security Council," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website, www.mid.ru.
Shaaban expressed "fundamental support for this idea," it said.
"Shaaban stressed the desire of Damascus for the earliest possible normalization of the situation in the country, for an end to any violence, and for a constructive dialogue with opposition groups that are open to this. She expressed gratitude for the position of the Russian Federation, which firmly opposes foreign interference in Syrian affairs and advocates the creation of favorable conditions for a political and diplomatic settlement, and the consequent unacceptability of the financing of militants, of supplying them with weapons and of incitement to more extensive confrontation via the mass media," the statement said.
Shaaban is visiting Moscow at the invitation of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the statement said.
The director of the institute, Vitaly Naumkin, and the Syrian ambassador to Russia, Riyad Haddad, were present at the meeting.