On Friday, Ban-Ki Moon, UN Secretary General, told the Financial Times newspaper that devastating Russian air raids in Syria last week made it harder for UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura to mediate talks between Damascus and opposition that were underway in Geneva.
On Friday, Ban-Ki Moon, UN Secretary General, told the Financial Times newspaper that devastating Russian air raids in Syria last week made it harder for UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura to mediate talks between Damascus and opposition that were underway in Geneva.
He warned that an immediate ceasefire was needed if the fragile diplomatic process to end the civil war was to have any hope of proceeding.
The Russian Foreign Ministry is concerned about UN Secretary General's remarks on alleged Russian role in the suspension of Syrian proximity talks. According to TASS, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was not to blame for the suspension of intra-Syrian talks.
The spokesman claimed Russia could hardly be held responsible for the suspension of negotiations, "for bearing some imaginary blame for that". "Terrorist groups are not taking part in these [intra-Syrian] talks and they should not take part in them," Dmitry Peskov said.
Moreover, Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, has described the allegations of Ban Ki-moon as non-objective. Sputnik News informs Zakharova said that Ban’s remarks played into the hands of Western media who had been spreading rumors about the Russian air campaign against Islamists in Syria and the toll it took on the civilian population.
"We have always assumed and still assume that comments from the chief executive of an international organization should be unbiased and objective, in line with his status. This was obviously not the case," the Russian diplomat stressed.
According to a group of Russian experts who gathered for a meeting on Monday to discuss the unsuccessful start of the Syria peace talks said that the inter-Syrian negotiations were unlikely to succeed so long as the Syrian army had not prevail.
