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Lavrov says Iran must take part in Geneva II Conference on Syria

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Nov 16, IRNA -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believes that Iran must take part in the initial stage of the Geneva-2 international peace conference for Syria, the Voice of Russia correspondent said.

External actors must be fully represented. Whoever has an influence on any Syrian group is ought to sit at the negotiating table during the initial stage of the conference, Kira Kalinina told reporters on Tuesday.

Commenting on the opinion of National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces leader Ahmad Jarba who said Iran must not be invited to Geneva II, Lavrov said: As the Russian-US duo devised, the Syrians will be negotiating directly, with the mediation of the UN Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and his team, at the later stages.

Russia, India and China stand for the soonest convening of an international peace conference on Syria, the so-called Geneva-2, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday after talks with his counterparts from India and China, Salman Khurshid and Wang Yi, respectively.

"We share common approaches to the assessment of the situation in Syria, our friends actively support the efforts at peaceful settlement of the crisis on the basis of international law and avoiding the use of force," Lavrov said.

"We all stand for the soonest convening of the Geneva-2 conference. We have coupon approaches to the organization of the forum: it should be maximally representative."

"It is in our common interests to offer all-round assistance to the international inspectors concerning the implementation of the program of Syria's chemical disarmament," the Russian foreign minister noted.

"We also have common vision of the tasks of overcoming obstacles on the path of the settlement of the Iranian nuclear program, on the path of getting back at the negotiating table on Korean Peninsula with a goal of ensuring its complete denuclearization."

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