The spokesman of the so-called Syrian National Coalition (SNC) has repeated his call for the overthrow of the legitimate government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Louay Safi made the remarks in Istanbul on Friday.
Safi also accused Assadâ„¢s government of not being serious about an international peace conference on the Syrian crisis that is likely to take place in Geneva in June.
Earlier in the day, Russia said the Syrian government agreed to attend the Geneva conference.
Å“We note with satisfaction that we have received an agreement in principle from Damascus to attend the international conference, in the interest of Syrians themselves finding a political path to resolve the conflict, which is ruinous for the nation and region,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.
However, Safi was not satisfied with that announcement.
“We would like to hear from the spokesman of the Syrian government. Why is Russia speaking on behalf of Syria?” he said.
“This has been related to us through the Russians, I have no idea why the Syrians are silent,” the SNC spokesman added.
At a meeting in Moscow on May 7, Russia and the U nited States reached an agreement to convene an international conference on Syria, which would serve as a follow-up to an earlier Geneva meeting held in June 2012.
Some reports say the meeting will be held on June 10, but Lukashevich said such reports Å“cannot be taken seriously” since the ranks of the Syrian opposition groups remain so divided.
On May 13, the US and Britain said they had found common ground with Russia on how to proceed on Syria.
At a meeting in Washington, US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron promised to make diplomatic efforts to find a political solution to the two-year crisis in Syria.
“Syria’s history is being written in the blood of her people, and it is happening on our watch,” Cameron told reporters at a joint press conference with Obama.
“The world urgently needs to come together to bring the killing to an end. None of us have any interest in seeing more lives lost, in seeing chemical weapons used,” the British prime minister stated.
Cameron, who held “very substantive, very purposeful and very useful” talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on May 10, said he believed Washington, London, and Moscow had found “common ground” on the crisis.
Obama agreed with Cameron, saying, Å“As a leader on the world stage, Russia has an interest, as well as an obligation,” to work on resolving the crisis.
The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of soldiers and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
GJH/HGL
This article originally appeared on: Press TV