Syrian opposition decided to boycott the Congress in Sochi

The Syrian opposition will not participate in the Congress of the Syrian national dialogue, which will be held in Sochi next week. According to Reuters, representatives of the opposition considered that this event is an attempt by Russia as the chief ally of Syria President Bashar al -Assad, to bring down the process of resolving the crisis launched by the UN.

“It is very obvious that someone is trying to prevent the settlement of the conflict, wants to prevent the Geneva negotiations and the political process as a whole,” Reuters quoted the official representative of the opposition Syrian Committee on negotiations (SCP) of Jahya al-Aridi.

Information about the boycott of the opposition of negotiations in Sochi was confirmed in an interview with TASS by another representative of the SCP, Firas Al-Kaldi. Answering the agency’s question, whether the corresponding entry is true on the committee on Twitter, he said: "Yes, this is so."

SKP voted in Congress in Sochi late on Friday night. Sources familiar with the situation said that 26 out of 36 people voted against participation, which is the necessary majority to make the appropriate decision.

Officially, Boycot will be announced on the afternoon of January 27. This will be done by the head of the Syrian Committee on negotiations of Nasr al-Kariri at a press conference appointed at 10:00 local time (12:00 in Moscow).

The fact that at the end of January the Congress of the National Dialogue of Syria will be held in Sochi on December 22 on the sidelines of the eighth round of negotiations in Astana on the de -escalation of the situation in Syria, the director of the Department of Asia and Africa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Aidarbek Tumatov. It is expected that about 1,500 delegates representing different political forces of the Arab Republic will take part in the Congress.

The head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, expressed an extremely regret in connection with the decision of the UPC to refuse to participate in the Congress. "I express an extreme regret on this occasion. Congress is a real chance to move forward in rallying a variety of forces in the interests of implementing the UN Security Council of 2254," he said to TASS.