Lavrov: West unable to force Syrian opposition to attend Geneva-2

The unpreparedness to take part in the Geneva-2 international peace conference for Syria declared by the Syrian National Council leader George Sabra demonstrates the inability of the West to compel the Syrian opposition to negotiate, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "It is strange to hear repeated statements by some US state department officials that we are moving towards Geneva II, but it’s important that Russia puts pressure on Damascus. They are shifting the blame. We are actually putting pressure on Damascus, and it really works", Sergey Lavrov said on Monday after the talks with Honduran Foreign Minister Mireya Aguero, Voice of Russia reported. "The statement of Mr Sabra, the head of the Syrian National Council, which is affiliated in some way with the National Coalition of the Syrian opposition, is another confirmation of the need to hold this conference as soon as possible," Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow on Monday. "The main obstacle to this endeavor is still the inability of our partners to force the Syrian opposition, whom they are supporting, to come to Geneva and sit down at the negotiating table with the government in order to find ways out of this crisis by general consent," the minister remarked. "Our partners, primarily the Americans, have assured us they will gather everyone for this conference "under the umbrella" of the National Coalition," Lavrov said. In his words, US Secretary of State John Kerry told him several days ago that the United States was making energetic efforts to ensure this, which would soon yield results. Lavrov also recalled that Damascus had received an Arab League observation mission, accepted the Kofi Annan plan and agreed with the deployment of the UN observation mission in Syria and its participation in the Geneva II conference. The Syrian opposition is disintegrating into small groups and combat units are withdrawing from the National Coalition's orbit and declaring a caliphate, rather than the struggle for democracy, as their goal, he said. "Probably, the opinions publicly expressed by State Department workers could have been a bit more self-critical," Lavrov said.