MOSCOW. April 9 (Interfax) - Thursday, April 9, is the final day of the second round of inter-Syrian consultations in Moscow.
The round began on April 6.
It involves several dozen representatives of opposition groups. The first two days were dedicated to contacts inside the opposition, and a government delegation led by Syrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bashar al-Jafari joined in on Wednesday.
Participants in the inter-Syrian consultations may meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday, moderator of the consultations, Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Oriental Studies Vitaly Naumkin told Interfax.
The opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad presented a document containing their vision of the Syrian events to the government delegation on Wednesday, an opposition group representative told Interfax.
"This document gives a detailed account of the issues highlighted in January [at the first round of inter-Syrian consultations], including the fight against terrorism and humanitarian affairs," he said.
The source gave a negative answer to the question as to whether the document touched upon the fate of al-Assad.
In fact, the Syrian president issue was not discussed at the current round or the previous consultations held on January 26-29.
In turn, a source close to the consultations told Interfax that opposition groups engaged in the inter-Syrian consultations in Moscow had been unable to agree upon their agenda and the content of conflict settlement documents. The source declined to be more specific about differences between opposition forces.
Naumkin confirmed the existence of disagreements between parties to the consultations. "If there were no disagreements, they would not be meeting here. Disputes have erupted. They were even quite heated on a number of occasions," Naumkin said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expects that the Moscow principles adopted at the first meeting in Moscow in January 2015 would be developed at the second round of the consultations between Syrian opposition members and government officials.
"Following the first January meeting, the moderator of the discussion, head of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Oriental Studies Institute Academician [Vitaly] Naumkin, formulated the principles that the parties did not reject but supported on the whole. I expect that some new understandings may be reached in the tenor of these principles," Lavrov said.
The organizers of the consultations have repeatedly emphasized that they are not trying to substitute the Geneva negotiations between the opposition and the Syrian authorities.