Lavrov: To Fulfill Arms Contracts with Syria, West Unsure Rebels to Agree on Peace Conference

Local Editor

Russia said on Thursday the West did not want to commit to a concrete timeframe for a proposed peace conference on Syria because it was not sure the opposition would agree to attend.

At a Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland earlier this week, the leaders adopted a noncommittal statement calling for the peace conference to be held "as soon as possible."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia pushed for a concrete time frame to be spelled out in the final statement but that its Western partners refused to do so.
"Our Western partners chose not to mention concrete dates because they are not at all sure that they will be able to sell the opposition" [on the need to participate], Lavrov said.

"We offered to define such a timeframe. Let it be a month, two, three, it's not important," he said in televised remarks.
"Our Western partners asked us not to do it and as a result, it was written down that there's a need to convene a conference 'as soon as possible'. But we all know what such declarations are worth," he said on the sidelines of the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum.

The Head of Moscow's diplomacy stressed that "we are sure that al-Nusra Front will obtain the western weaponry in case supplies were sent to Syria."
He voiced that "we don't want to repeat the Iraqi's scenario in Syria."
"Our dispute with the west on Syria is about the settlement ways not about the aims," Lavrov said.

In parallel, he confirmed that Moscow will honor its controversial contract to deliver S-300 air defense missile systems to Syria.

"We respect all our contracts and are honoring all our contractual obligations. As yet, the contracts are not finished, they have not been delivered in full," he added.