Women stand on the balcony as they watch a protest against President Bashar Al Assad after Friday prayers in Raqqa province, east Syria.
MOSCOW/newyork: UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Russia agreed yesterday that a peace conference on Syria should be held “as soon as possible”, even as Moscow defied growing global pressure over its arms supplies to the Damascus regime.
Ban met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov before starting talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about an impending international meeting on Syria that should include representatives of the two warring parties for the first time.
“There are high expectations and the meeting should be held as soon as possible,” Ban told reporters alongside Lavrov. Russia’s top diplomat added: “The sooner this conference is held, the better.”
But Lavrov still cautioned that it was too early to name the date of the Geneva meeting — now expected for the first half of June — because the actual makeup of the Syrian delegations had not yet been set. “We have to come up with a decision about the Syrian delegations and the group of this conference’s participants,” Lavrov said. “Nothing is possible without this.”
France said yesterday it is opposed to having Iran attend a peace conference on Syria despite Damascus’s ally Russia wanting Tehran’s presence at the event expected in the first half of June.
Foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said: “We do not want Iran. The Syrian crisis is contagious and affects the entire zone. Regional stability is at stake and we cannot see how a country (Iran) that threatens this stability can participate in this conference.”
The new talks are meant to include both the fiercest rebels and members of the regime — a difficulty considering some opposition members’ refusal to recognise President Bashar Al Assad as a negotiating partner.
Moscow is also calling for the inclusion on this occasion of its trading partner Iran and US ally Saudi Arabia as a counterweight.
Russia has sent Syria advanced anti-ship missiles, US. officials said yesterday, bolstering Syrian defenses despite pleas from Washington and elsewhere to stop supplying President Bashar Al Assad’s forces. One of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the latest Yakhont surface-to-air missiles were delivered recently. The transfer of the missiles was first reported by the New York Times. There was no immediate comment from the Russian government.
The Geneva talks were agreed during a May 7 visit to Moscow by US Secretary of State John Kerry and are seen as a rare joint peace push by the two former Cold War rivals some 26 months into the Syrian war. But US President Barack Obama admits that mistrust lingers between Moscow and Washington and the world community remains particularly concerned by Russia’s arms deliveries to its longstanding ally Assad.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Putin in Sochi on Tuesday not to follow through with Russia’s reported decision to ship powerful S-300 surface-to-air missiles that can take out fighter jets.
Agencies
