Creation of a unified Syrian opposition's delegation is included in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution, which should be implemented by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva Alexei Borodavkin told Sputnik on Wednesday.
"We agree that, in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 2254, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura was instructed to determine the composition of a unified opposition delegation. We believe that he must fulfill his mandate, entrusted to him by the UNSC. At the same time, the opposition delegation should be inclusive, that is, to represent all current moderate opposition in Syria," Borodavkin said.
Russia believes that at the end of the April round of intra-Syrian negotiations in Geneva it would be possible to sum up the ideas on political transition in a separate document that could be created by the Office of UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, relying on the successful experience of the documents preparation after the March round of talks, Borodavkin told Sputnik.
The previous round of talks ended on March 24 with Syrian rivals submitting proposals on how to settle the five-year crisis. De Mistura summarized the 12 basic points of convergence between the parties in a final paper that was sent on to delegations for their approval.
"We assessed as positive experience of preparing by Staffan de Mistura, at the end of the last round a summing-up document, in which he tried to find formulas that could be supported, or at least not contested by the parties involved in the talks. In general, this document, in our opinion, was a success," the Russian diplomat said.
This paper was treated positively in Damascus and the Syrian government offered some amendments, which have already been discussed at the beginning of the current round of talks and have been positively evaluated by de Mistura's office as well, Borodavkin highlighted.
He also noted the positive evaluation of the document by the Moscow-Cairo opposition group and the internal Syrian opposition, formed at the Hmeymim airbase, which, however, stressed the need to write down in these proposals that the future Syrian state should be secular. Borodavkin explained that the same a position was shared by Damascus.
"However, unfortunately, the HNC delegation in their comments to the media rejected the document," he said.
"We believe that the experience of preparing the above-mentioned document should be used in reference to the results of the current round, trying to summarize ideas and proposals on the political transition, the transition period, which have been put forward by the negotiating parties. The office of Staffan de Mistura could have done this…" Borodavkin outlined.