ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - While Russia objects in principle to the participation of two Islamist groups (Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam) in the ongoing Syria peace talks in Geneva it has nevertheless agreed to them participating on an individual basis.
"This does not mean that this is an acknowledgement of Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham as legitimate partners in the negotiations," Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told an Abu Dhabi press conference, quoted by Reuters.
"This is our stance and this is the stance of so many parties in the support gruop and they consider these groups terrorist groups," he added.
Both groups wish to establish strict Salafi-Islamist regimes in Syria in territories they wrest from the regime or their opponents and eventually in place of that regime altogether, and likely at the expense of Syrian minorities like the Alawites, Christians and Druze.
Jaish al-Islam is backed by Saudi Arabia and its former head, Zahran Alloush, was killed in an air strike believed to have been carried out by Russia last December 25. Lavrov also said that Russia fully supports the Geneva negotiations which aim to broker a ceasefire and bring about a transitional process.
"We will offer all our support to this process," he claimed.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment