Syria Settlement Doomed If Arab States Not Involved - Ex-Head of Arab League

The Syrian settlement process guided by a plan worked out without the participation of Saudi Arabia and Egypt is doomed to be unsustainable, former secretary-general of the League of Arab States Amre Moussa told Sputnik Tuesday.

DAVOS (Sputnik) — The former official added that the settlement process should not involve exclusively Russia, the United States, Iran and Turkey without any other components.

"Leaving Syria and of course Lebanon to be ruled by a plan agreed by non-Arab countries is a formula for disaster. It will not be sustainable," Moussa said.

"Those who think that this formula will work and the Arabs will salute these four powers solutions, I don't think that this will happen…. At least the Arabs should be represented by the two most important countries — Saudi Arabia and Egypt," Moussa added.

Syrian government and opposition factions are supposed to meet in Astana on January 23 for talks brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran. They will be followed by a UN-mediated meeting in Geneva on February 8. On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow considered it appropriate to invite representatives of the new US administration to Syria talks.