Washington: The United States has called "premature" a planned meeting next week in Moscow between Syrian government officials and members of Syria's opposition.
While the U.S. believes diplomacy on solving the Syrian crisis is "more promising than it has been in some time" following discussions in Vienna on October 30, it is still too early for opposition groups to become involved in negotiations, said the State Department spokeswoman on Tuesday.
"We believe there's a time and a place for everything," said spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau. "There'll be a time and place when the opposition groups will be represented. We just don't think we're there yet."
Russia has invited both the Syrian government and opposition groups to Moscow for a third round of talks. The first two rounds were in January and April.
"We will invite [the parties] to Moscow for consultations next week," Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday."
"There are no problems with the government. Now we are conducting talks with the representatives of various Syrian opposition organizations so that they come to Moscow," he said.
But the State Department spokeswoman said, "We think that it is premature to have that meeting."
Trudeau said, "We think that there is a place for the Syrian opposition and a time for the Syrian opposition to gather to have those conversations."
She said the process worked out in Vienna did not allow yet for direct government to opposition contacts.
"We believe that as we continue to work through the dynamics of what was agreed in Vienna that there will come a time. We think it’s premature before the Vienna group meets again," Trudeau said.
QNA
