MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign minister opens a Moscow-sponsored peace conference for Syria on Tuesday by saying that time is ripe to end the “painful” conflict in the war-torn Arab country. Key Syrian opposition and rebels groups, however, are boycott the gathering, which Moscow describes as an effort to speed up political settlement for Syria.
Sergey Lavrov’s comments are also in sharp contrast with the violence on the ground in Syria, where opposition activists report more airstrikes on the rebel-held province of Idlib. Also, Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters are marching deeper into a Kurdish enclave in the country’s north.
The Russia-sponsored conference opens in the Black Sea resort of Sochi after a two-hour delay, after some members of rebel groups returned to the airport in protest.
Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, says it invited 1,600 representatives to the Syrian Congress of National Dialogue, but so far only the government and opposition representatives tolerated by Damascus have shown up. The main Syrian opposition body is boycotting the talks.
— AP
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