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A meeting of the "core" of the Friends of Syria has attempted to revise all key provisions of the Geneva communique adopted on June 30, 2012, and to distort the shape of the future Geneva-II conference, Moscow said Wednesday.
"Prior to that event we were told the discussions there will be held exclusively on the base of Geneva communique. However, they went far beyond that document in an attempt to revise the communique according to the political needs (of hardline Syrian opposition)," Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in an online comment.
During the Wednesday meeting in London of 11 foreign ministers, the head of the Syrian opposition National Coalition (NC) Ahmed Jarba said that the Syrian opposition risked losing credibility if it yields to international pressure to go to Geneva without achieving the goal of ousting President Bashar Assad.
This is a barely hidden threat to return to the use of force, which is absolutely unacceptable, Lukashevich said.
He added that during the London meeting its participants have again accused the Syrian government of use of chemical weapons. That has contradicted the UNSC resolution 2118, Russian diplomat stressed.
Moscow pointed out that its western partners have been fruitlessly attempting to persuade various Syrian opposition groups to take part in Geneva-II under the National Coalition umbrella.
"There is an impression that London document aimed at undermining the Geneva-II by drawing attention away (from opposition) to Syrian authorities," Lukashevich said.
Russia insists that National Coalition's representation at the conference should correspond to its political influence in Syria.
"There is no ground to say the NC has been the only lawful representative of either all Syrian people or even the opposition as a whole," the commentary went on.
Moscow highlighted that the London document had been adopted during a tour of the UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to the Middle East where he discuss preparations for Geneva-II.
This is an attempt to press the UN diplomat, Lukashevich said, adding that the only task of the outside players is to persuade the confronting Syrian parties to negotiate, but the settlement itself must be reached without any outside pressure.
Participants of the London meeting included U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry; four foreign ministers from the European Union; foreign ministers from Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
