Russia Manages Solution of Syrian Conflict with Integrated Vision

Russia is working in combining several components to find a prompt political solution to the conflict in Syria, said today the official spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.

We departed from a comprehensive approach to the Syrian crisis, and from exploiting all the possibilities for a peaceful solution to the situation, said Zakharova in declarations to Prensa Latina during a working meeting with foreign journalists.

She said that along with the military component of 'support to the Syrian army in the fight against terrorists', Moscow deploys an intense diplomatic effort to bring to fruition the negotiating process between the political forces in that country.

Zakharova spoke further of the permanent contact with the authorities in Damascus via the Foreign Ministry channel, even with a role played by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and representatives of the opposition and internal organizations based abroad.

The third block is aimed at the premises for a direct dialogue between the Syrians, said the official spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, mentioning the two conferences held between Syrian parties in Moscow this year.

Russia, insisted Zakharova to this agency, gives importance to the contacts with other international actors in the Syrian issue, both bi- and multilaterally, at the request of formats and international forums such as the UN.

She said that a greater influence of major players on the opposition is required, across the spectrum, in order to realize steps with a lasting perspective, towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Arab nation.

Zakharova recalled that the Syrian crisis is a reflection of a conflict of regional interests, hence we consider a mistake the exclusion of Iran from the peace process, she said.

In this regard she argued that the United States insists on a negotiating format reduced to the exclusive presence of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and blocks any possibility of Iran's inclusion in the different formats on Syria, as proposed by Russia.

Along with starting a large-scale air operation over Syrian territory against the positions of the Islamic State and other extremist groups, Moscow coordinated the creation of an information center based in Baghdad, to exchange intel with Iran, Iraq and Syria in the fight against terrorism in the Middle East.

The spokesperson considered that the Syrian conflict reached a decisive stage in which the main task is the fight against international terrorism, and called on all those involved in one way or another to "put aside their own interests and not miss the chance to seal that problem forever."

In a surprise meeting in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, President Bashar Al Assad acknowledged that without Russia's actions, terrorism would have expanded in the region and would have occupied more territories in Syria.

Informing Putin of the plans by government forces in their offensive against important terrorist enclaves such as Aleppo, Latakia and Idlib, Assad expressed the desire to continue the coordination, both militarily and in the economic reconstruction and the political recovery of the country, reported the Rossia 24 channel.