Lavrov: Necessity to stem channels of supporting and financing terrorists in Syria

Vienna, SANA_ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that his talks with the US Secretary of State John Kerry touched upon means to stop importing weapons to terrorists in Syria particularly through Turkish borders.

Lavrov added, in a press conference following his talks with Kerry, we discussed the necessity of stopping channels of supporting and financing terrorists particularly across the Syrian-Turkish border, and we do know that each part of agreements needs to use pressure upon all Syrian opposition groups by members of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), pointing out that the US used influence over those groups and we will see what would happen.

“We focused on sending an important signal to a specific part of the Syrian opposition which presents final warnings and pre-conditions,” Lavrov said, adding that talks with al-Riyadh opposition and other oppositions on the crisis in Syria would be continued.

The Russian Foreign Minister pointed out that “our American partners understand the importance of implementing all agreements including to have all representatives of the Syrian opposition in the intra-Syrian dialogue, and we will see how talks would go Tuesday during ISSG meeting,”

He added that the final document to be issued by Russia and the US, as co-chairs of ISSG, was also discussed, and “we together would present those ideas to our partners in ISSG to be adopted in the meeting”.

On Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that his country is working on setting ideas for the final document of the ISSG meeting due to be held in Vienna Tuesday.

Lavrov affirmed that Russia and the US have an understanding over what should be done concerning the political solution for the crisis in Syria, pointing out that some opposition sides have constructive ideas over the settlement.

For his part, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said, in a statement from Vienna, that the next round of the Intra-Syrian dialogue for solving the crisis in Syria is up to the UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan De Mistura’s decision.

Gatilov indicated that representatives of the Syrian opposition presented, during their meeting with Lavrov, practical steps to set successful talks, pointing out that De Mistura doesn’t object, in principle, the participation of Syrian Kurds in the intra-Syrian dialogue.

Barry/ Ghossoun

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