Russia in talks with Syrian opposition over dialogue congress

MOSCOW – 16 November 2017: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov held talks on Wednesday with representatives of the Syrian opposition on their participation in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress to take place in Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Gatilov and Russian envoy to the Mideast Sergey Vershinin, who attended the talks, were trying to convince Qahm Movement's Haytham Manna and the Southern Front's Khaled Mahameed to attend the Russian-back event, to be held in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The Russian officials underlined the importance that Qahm Movement and Southern Front representatives would attend the congress that aims at launching face-to-face negotiations with the Assad regime.

The negotiations are meant to find a permanent solution to the Syrian crisis based on UNSC resolution 2254.

Meanwhile, 144 Syrian opposition members were invited to Riyadh-2 conference to take place on November 22 over the years-long Syrian crisis.