MOSCOW. Feb 3 (Interfax) - Leaders of Syria's National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces arriving in Moscow on Monday will urge Russia to influence the Syrian regime for the sake of progress on the Syrian political structure and pick a side, either the Syrian people or the regime.
"We are coming to Russia to meet with the national administration. Russian delegates were in Geneva and could see that the government wanted to evade Geneva II and discussions of the political future. Russia has to exert pressure on the regime so that it heads towards a political solution. There will be no solution until it becomes clear that [incumbent Syrian President Bashar] Al-Assad must not be in the government," National Coalition Secretary General Badr Jamous told Interfax the day before their arrival in Moscow.
National Coalition head Ahmad Jarba will come to Russia together with Jamous.
"We are expecting to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and, probably, hold other meetings. We are friends of Russia. Yet Russia has to decide who it wants to be with, either with the people or with the government. It is impossible to support the government, which does not want to feed its people," Jamous said.
He once again called for bringing humanitarian supplies to Homs' old district.
The first round of the inter-Syrian dialogue ended in Geneva on Friday. The sides failed to make significant progress on reconciliation of their positions. The next round has been scheduled for February 10.