Yet, 85 to 90 percent of Russian strikes in Syria have hit the moderate Syrian opposition, the top US diplomat for the Middle East told a congressional committee on Wednesday.
Advertisement
Ahmed Ramadan, a senior member of the Syrian National Coalition, said the opposition group has not received an invitation to Moscow and would not accept such a meeting anyway.
However, representatives from the Free Syrian Army or FSA say they are at war with Russia – and as long as it continues to bombard their fighters – there can be no dialogue.
“Next week we will invite them to Moscow for consultations”, deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
“Your women are our women”, a teenage boy standing near one of the cages is filmed as saying.
The SDF said on Saturday that it had begun its first offensive since announcing the anti-ISIL alliance last month in Hassakeh.
The town is the frequent target of regime fire, with at least 70 people killed there in government attacks Friday. “We are not at all talking about what is called a transitional period”, Faisal Mekdad said during a visit to Iran.
This image posted on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015, by a website used by Islamic State militants, shows Syrians in front of a mosque in the village of Mahin, central Homs province, Syria.
A Russian official has said Moscow will not insist on Syrian President Bashar al Assad remaining in power, despite supporting his government with airstrikes.
Meanwhile, a Syrian rebel group has defended its decision to use prisoners as human shields against regime and Russian air strikes.
“The northern friend who came to Syria to provide military support recently [did so to serve] its interests”, said Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari.
“We need to work on it quickly”, he said, adding that the talks need to begin without pre-conditions from either side.
Later, she told the TASS news agency that the remarks were not a change in position.
Civilians have died in Russian strikes on civil defense crews, hospitals, centers for displaced persons and ambulances, she claimed.
Advertisement
Lavrov spoke at a press conference after meeting in Moscow with U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura to discuss the process of finding a political solution to the conflict that has left more than 240,000 people dead since March 2011. The negotiations left open the question of when Assad might leave power, and it was unclear whether he or disparate rebel groups fighting to topple him would sign on to any peace proposal.
