Lavrov: Foreign parties hinder settling crisis in Syria

"Since the beginning of the crisis, the foreign parties which support the extremist opposition in Syria have been trying to hinder any peaceful solution," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Lavrov's remarks came during a meeting held Monday with a delegation of the National Coordination Committee for the Forces of Democratic Change. The foreign funders of the extremist opposition hinder reaching a peaceful solution through dialogue regardless of the growing recognition of its importance by all the parties, Lavrov said. "Moscow is ready to work for starting dialogue between the opposition and the Syrian Government," he added. He hailed the Coordination Committee's efforts for "unifying the national opposition forces on the basis of being ready to held dialogue with the government," describing this as "very significant contribution to the process which Russia tries to launch." "The latest conference held by the opposition forces with the participation of the Committee formed its visions on the constructive way of starting dialogue," he said. In this regard, he indicated that "The Syrian Government also announced its ideas expressing desire to participate in the dialogue." He hoped that "These two processes by the government and the opposition will be unified." Lavrov affirmed that the Syrians must solve all the issues without any foreign interference as they must decide the future of their country by themselves. Russian Foreign Ministry sources said after the meeting that Minister Lavrov called the Syrian opposition to make clear steps to pave the ground for dialogue with the government to find a political solution to the crisis. The sources added, "The meeting deeply discussed the situation and means to achieve political settlement to the crisis in Syria." The two sides stressed the necessity of immediate halt of all forms of violence in Syria and the importance of starting dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition based on Geneva statement of June 30th , 2012. Minister Lavrov expressed Moscow's support to the efforts of the National Coordination Committee for the Forces of Peaceful Change being an important Syrian opposition force on the way to achieving political solution through negotiations with the government and comprehensive dialogue with no preconditions. The two sides agreed to continue communication between the Russian side and the civil democratic alliance to solve the crisis in Syria peacefully.