MOSCOW. June 17 (Interfax) - The steps the West has been taking to arm the Syrian opposition are moving off the conference on Syria in Geneva, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.
"Taking the current situation into account, as well as steps being made to arm the Syrian opposition, all of which seriously escalates tensions inside and outside Syria, it is even more difficult to talk about the date than a month ago, or when Russia and the United States officially voiced their bilateral initiative on this score. Therefore, it is difficult to talk about the date," he said at a press briefing in Moscow.
"I do hope that the upcoming trilateral meeting between high-level Russian, American and UN diplomats, including the UN secretary general's special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, will try and forge compromise-based solutions regarding the terms of convening the conference, the list of participants and other political aspects of this event," he said.
A preparatory meeting on the Russia-U.S.-UN format is to be held in Geneva on June 25.
The conference aims to realize this idea "as soon as possible," Lukashevich said.
"Unfortunately, the situation is changing too quickly and not for the better - a factor obscuring the prospect of calling this conference in the near future," Lukashevich sauid.
"But we are not discouraged and we will get all queries cleared before this forum is called," he said.