Russia expects the issue of restoring Syria's membership in the Arab League (LAS) to be resolved quickly enough, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on Monday following talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
He said it's not an issue that can be solved overnight, taking into consideration all the contradictions and emotions accumulated over many years. Nevertheless, according to the Minister, Russia feels that its consistent calls to create conditions for solving this problem "are resonating, and more and more interested and more positive." "I can confirm that these are the conclusions we drew from our recent visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, we also spoke about this in detail today," Lavrov pointed out.
Lavrov said, "I think the most important thing here is that both sides, the Arab League and Syria, should realize the fundamental advantages of Syria's reinstatement in this pan-Arab organization. - If they do realize these advantages, and I have heard from all my interlocutors that this is the case, the rest is a matter of diplomatic technique. Arab diplomacy is very well known for its efficiency, so I think we can hope the matter will be settled, hopefully fairly quickly".
Damascus' membership in the Arab League was suspended in November 2011 amid intensifying armed conflict in the country.
The LAS was established on March 22, 1945, in Cairo at a conference of Arab states, with the participation of seven countries: Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan (now - Jordan) and Yemen. The LAS now includes 22 states.
Refugee camps
The Russian Foreign Minister also said that Russia considers attempts to finance refugee camps in Syria instead of creating conditions for their return home to be counterproductive and shortsighted.
"We spoke in favor of creating conditions for the return of refugees as soon as possible. Russia considers attempts to fund refugee camps that have been established in Syria's neighboring countries to be counterproductive and shortsighted instead of channeling funds to create conditions for their return to their homes," he said.
As Lavrov noted, Russia and Egypt have a common position on the need to preserve the sovereignty, territorial integrity, the political unity of Syria and respect for the right of its citizens to determine the future of their country themselves. "Of particular importance at the current stage is helping Syrians to overcome the consequences of years of armed conflict and helping them to restore humanitarian and elementary economic infrastructure is not hampered by illegal unilateral sanctions, which aim to strangle the Syrian people in the hope that it will lead to so-called regime change," the Russian Foreign Minister added.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS