MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - League of Arab States (LAS) Secretary General Nabil Elaraby hopes Russia can persuade the Syrian government to start a dialogue with the Syrian opposition.
Russia has very good relations with the Damascus government and we hope it will use this lasting relationship to convince the government that the crisis can be stopped only peacefully, through a dialogue, he told a Wednesday press conference in Moscow after a Russia-LAS forum.
He said the Arab public insisted on termination of violence, bloodshed and destruction in Syria because Syrian restoration would be impossible otherwise.
Thousands of people have fled Syria and found refuge in neighboring countries, Elaraby said. He said that could not go on for long and they wished to urge the soonest beginning of the dialogue.
Every decision made by the LAS with regard to the Syrian problem in the past 18 months confirmed its adherence to peaceful settlement, but the peace process cannot happen by itself, he said.
It is vital to begin a transitional period in Syria and to form a transitional government, he said.
In the words of Elaraby, that would not be easy but the goal had been defined by consensus.
Speaking of LAS-Syria relations, he said they lasted for long enough in spite of the decision to suspend the Syrian attendance of LAS meetings rather than its membership in the organization.
Syria took no part in the meeting because it failed to implement the resolutions it had accepted earlier, the LAS secretary general said.