“Jaish al-Islam” and “Ahrar al-sham” are terrorist organizations- Gatilov

Geneva, SANA- Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Wednesday “Moscow confirmed to Washington that Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-sham organizations can’t be on the list of the Syrian opposition because they are terrorists”.

An inter-Syrian meeting is due to be held between the Syrian government nad opposition in Geneva on 25 January as arranged by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura’s.

“We think that the opposition delegations mustn’t be represented by terrorists, rather by the powers which call for a political settlement,” Russia Today quoted Gatilov as saying in Geneva, adding that the aforementioned terrorist organizations are propagandist of the military solution for the crisis in Syria.

He pointed out that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold a meeting with his US counterpart John Kerry next week to discuss issues related not only to the Syrian issue.

Meanwhile, de Mistura’s spokesperson Jessy Chahine said that the latter is sending invitations for attending Geneva meeting due on January 25th.

In turn, De Mistura expressed hope the inter-Syrian meeting be held on due time January 25, clarifying that the meeting aims at achieving progress on Geneva talks and affirming that he consulted with the representatives of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council because there are still outstanding issues.

A tripartite meeting included de Mistura, Gatilov and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Anne Patterson was held yesterday in Geneva to discuss preparations for resuming the Syrian-Syrian talks and the latest developments on the crisis in Syria.

Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem told de Mistura during their last meeting in Damascus Last Saturday reiterated the Syrian stance represented by continuing cooperation with De Mistura to combat terrorism and push dialogue among the Syrians forwards, adding “Syria is ready to take part in Geneva meetings at the appointed time”, as well as the necessity of having a list on the terrorist organizations and another one about the names of the Syrian opposition sides that will join Geneva talks.
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