November 29, 2012, 11:13 Politics

The Syrians returned to Lavrov

The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry will meet with Syrian oppositionists on Thursday

Farida Rustamova; Zhanna Ulyanova close 100%

Representatives of the internal Syrian opposition arrived in Moscow. According to the official statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the purpose of the visit is to continue the negotiation process between opposition groups and the government of Bashar al-Assad. The opposition - representatives of the National Coordination Committee, who in early November refused to support the new coalition bloc of political emigrants and rebels operating in Syria - declared a priority to eliminate contradictions between like-minded people in the fight against the current government.

Representatives of the internal Syrian opposition - the National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change (NCD), which has been active since the beginning of the civil war in 2011, and representatives of the Kurdish minorities - arrived in Moscow on Thursday night. The delegates are scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East Mikhail Bogdanov and State Duma deputies . The meeting was previously announced by the minister himself.

The purpose of the next visit to Moscow by the Syrian opposition is officially declared to be the continuation of dialogue between various opposition groups and the current government of Syria.

But one of the main topics is likely to be the issue of uniting opposing opposition groups.

Thus, upon arrival in Moscow, the oppositionists especially emphasized the importance of uniting the disparate opposition. “It is possible to unite the internal and external opposition, but this requires agreement on the main issues,” ITAR-TASS quotes the general coordinator of the NCC, Hassan Abdel Azim, who did not specify which issues require agreement. His deputy, Aref Dalil, also stressed that the internal opposition opposes the escalation of the conflict within the country and refuses dialogue with the authorities, but is ready to negotiate.

“We are ready not for dialogue, but for negotiations with the SAR authorities, at which changes in the political regime will be discussed.” Dalil explained that the government of Bashar al-Assad insists on dialogue, but the demands of the opposition are not subject to discussion. “We insist that the revolution be peaceful and that the bloodshed be stopped,” Azim continued. “The committee has always tried to unite the opposition on these principles.”

The NCC belongs to that part of the Syrian opposition that advocates concluding agreements based on the communique adopted on June 30 in Geneva at the international conference on Syria - it talks about the formation of a transitional government in Syria with the participation of all parties to the conflict, and also provides for the possibility of revising the country's constitution followed by multi-party elections to new government bodies. The NCC also supports the plan proposed by Lakhdar Brahimi, the special envoy of the UN and the League of Arab States for Syria. It involves a ceasefire by all parties to the conflict and the introduction of 3 thousand UN peacekeepers into Syria.

“We now need all parties related to the Syrian problem - members of the UN Security Council , Western countries, Russia, China and the League of Arab States - to overcome all contradictions in order to stop hostilities, release prisoners and begin implementing the Geneva Communiqué , and to successfully implement Lakhdar Brahimi’s plan,” said the General Coordinator of the NCC.

Azim stressed that before starting the negotiation process with the government of Bashar al-Assad, it is necessary to stop “violence and killings in Syria” and “remove contradictions” between the opposition groups themselves.

Meanwhile, most of the Syrian opposition believes that first it is necessary to remove the Assad regime, and only then start talking about the future structure of the country.

The contradictions between the opposition in exile and the rebels fighting in the country escalated in mid-November, when some of the Syrian fighters against Bashar al-Assad united into another coalition. The bloc of warring rebels and political emigrants was called the National Coalition of Opposition and Revolutionary Forces (NCORS), and the famous Islamic preacher and scholar Ahmed Muaaz al-Khatib, who fled Damascus in the summer, was chosen as its head. Official Damascus calls it the “Qatar Coalition.”

Formed in the capital of Qatar, Doha, the NKORS, which declared itself the only legitimate representative of the people, relies mainly on support from the West and Arab countries and relies not on negotiations with official Damascus, but on the forceful overthrow of the regime, which, in turn, directly contradicts Geneva Communiqué.

The coalition announced its intention to create a government in exile. However, not all representatives of the opposition joined the new anti-government union. In particular, the negotiations were ignored by representatives of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) operating inside Syria.

The refusal to join the internal opposition bloc was to be expected. The new coalition is the second attempt to unite the opposition after the Syrian National Council (SNC), created last year when the civil war began. The council was dominated by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood (an organization banned in Russia) and received little support from the West, resulting in the need for yet another new association.

In the NKORS, representatives of the SNA ended up with 27 representatives, which was the reason for the disagreements that almost immediately broke out at the meeting, which took place on Wednesday, November 28. Members from the SNC said they would not continue to work until there were more representatives. Their opponents in the coalition do not agree with these demands. They believe that the future of Syria is more important than the ambitions of the Muslim Brotherhood, especially since they already have almost half of the 60 seats in the NKORS.

Opposition denies involvement in Damascus bombings On Wednesday, two car bombs killed at least 44 people, 10 of them unidentified, and 83 people were injured as a result of two car bombs in the Jaraman area in the southeast of the Syrian capital Damascus. Government television said the attacks happened at 6:40 a.m. local time, showing footage of destroyed buildings and vandalized cars. There were four explosions in total - two more improvised explosive devices went off at about the same time, but no one was injured. So far, no side has claimed responsibility for the explosions. There were earlier clashes between security forces and insurgents in the area. Car bombings have rocked Damascus with increasing regularity, but the latest is the capital's deadliest in months. The previous major terrorist attack in the Jaraman area with a predominantly Christian and Druze (Druze is an offshoot of Islam) population occurred on October 29, when 11 people were also killed due to a car explosion. In early November, in another southeastern region, Mazzeh, where mainly Alawites and supporters of the Assad regime live, a suicide bomber in a car with explosives caused the death of 11 people and injured dozens. Bashar al-Assad's government has previously said it is protecting religious minorities from "terrorists and extremists." Government supporters in Jaraman and other areas have even formed armed militias called People's Committees to prevent attacks like Wednesday's. The armed Syrian opposition has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attacks, saying that their forces were directed against the Assad regime, and not against minorities. Wednesday's bombings followed two weeks of military successes by rebels storming and capturing military bases across Syria. They weakened Assad's position in the northern and eastern regions of the country, despite the use of the Syrian air force against their strongholds. An attack on a Syrian Air Force fighter-bomber in the northern province of Aleppo is a demonstration of the growing military power of opposition fighters, who are replenishing their weapons during raids on army targets and receiving assistance from abroad. The opposition claims that they shot down the plane with a surface-to-air missile. Official Damascus, meanwhile, declares that it is fighting against well-armed al-Qaeda groups. “Currently, the state and its supporters in Syria are confronting Al-Qaeda and the Qatar Coalition (the National Coalition of Syrian Opposition and Revolutionary Forces established in Doha), which represents the political leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood group, seeking to return the black pages of its presence in history of Syria,” the official Syrian news agency SANA quoted the Syrian Minister of Information as saying. Last week, Syria sent to the UN Security Council a new list of 143 foreign citizens killed “during terrorist activities.” It includes citizens of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Afghanistan, Jordan, Turkey, Yemen, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Algeria, Chad, Pakistan, as well as Palestinians and people from Chechnya and Azerbaijan. At the same time, according to independent experts who were recently presented at the UN headquarters, militants from 11 countries are fighting in Syria.

The day before, Sergei Lavrov had to explain himself in connection with the statement of the non-profit organization Pro Publica about Russia's supply of about 240 tons of banknotes in foreign currency.

According to the organization, citing some accompanying documents, in the summer of 2012, a Syrian Air Force Il-76 cargo plane made eight flights from Damascus to Moscow. In Russia, the Syrian plane was allegedly loaded with 30 tons of banknotes each time. At the same time, the organization notes that it cannot confirm the authenticity of the documents and report the denomination and type of banknotes.

Lavrov assured that Russia is not categorically against external intervention in the situation in Syria and does not intend to participate in the armed conflict itself, much less accept either side. “Of course, there can be no talk of any involvement of Russia in an armed conflict. The Navy's logistics support center in Tartus is operating normally. Let me emphasize: our long-term cooperation in the military-technical field serves primarily to maintain stability in the Middle East and has never been aimed at supporting any forces in the internal Syrian arena,” RIA Novosti quotes Lavrov.

Representatives of the NCC already visited Moscow on an official visit in April.