MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax) - Moscow welcomes the Riyadh Group's engagement in technical consultations within the framework of the Geneva process on Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"It's indicative that all key opposition groups represented in the Geneva process have taken part in these technical consultations at the same table for the first time during the Geneva process. I mean the Moscow Group, the Cairo Group, and, what's quite important, the so-called High Negotiations Committee, or the Riyadh Group," Lavrov said at a news briefing in Moscow on Monday.
Until lately, the Riyadh Group had considered it "beneath its dignity to work together with opposition members representing the Moscow and Cairo platforms," he said.
"So this is really a major qualitative change in the High Negotiations Committee's approach toward the negotiations and the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution. I hope this constructive change in the Riyadh Group's attitude has been prompted by the work of foreign actors giving their preference to it," he said.
"This is a change that we welcome," he said.