Russia urges Syrian govt to pursue dialogue with opponents

Brahimi will fly to Moscow on Saturday for talks on the results of his negotiations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his opponents during a five-day trip to Damascus in which he called for political change to end the bloodshed.    

"We will listen to what Lakhdar Brahimi has to say about the situation in Syria and after that, probably, there will be a decision to hold a new meeting of the 'three Bs'," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikahil Bogdanov said - making a word play on the first letter of the diplomats' last names.    

Bogdanov, US Undersecretary of State William Burns and Brahimi, the joint special representative of the United Nations and the Arab League, agreed that a political solution to the crisis was necessary and possible in talks earlier this month.    

Bogdanov said another meeting of the three "will take place already in January after the holidays."    

Brahimi, who has called for a transitional government to rule until elections, is trying to broker a peaceful transfer of power in Syria, where more than 44,000 people have been killed in a revolt against four decades of Assad family rule.    

Moscow has tried to distance itself from Assad in recent months and has said it is not propping him up, but it maintains Assad's exit from power cannot be a precondition to talks.    

On the other hand, the Russian Foreign Ministry invited the head of the Syrian National Coalition Maaz al-Khatib to participate in the negotiations aimed at settling the Syrian crisis, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the RIA Novosti news agency.             

Bogdanov said that the meeting could be held in Moscow or elsewhere, in Geneva or Cairo for example.


REUTERS