MOSCOW. Jan 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry welcomes an increase in the number of participants from among the Syrian opposition wishing to take part in talks in Astana on January 23, Lieut. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, head of the Main Operative Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, said.
"However, the negotiating process must involve those opposition representatives who have real influence among the armed groups on the ground. This difficult and delicate work with requests from opposition representatives having been carried out by our specialists over the past two months," Rudskoi said at a briefing in Moscow on Wednesday.
The aim of this work "is to create conditions to ensure real dialogue at talks in Astana among all responsible parties in the interests of the people of Syria," he said.
"An indispensable condition for participation in the talks is a written confirmation of having joined the cessation of hostilities by a specific armed group, stating its numbers, the area it controls, as well as the state which acts as a guarantor of this group fulfilling the conditions of the truce," he said.