Concept of Moderate Opposition in Syria ‘Failure’

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said that the attempts to define a moderate opposition in Syria separate from terrorist groups have proved unsuccessful.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — The attempts to define a moderate opposition in Syria separate from terrorist groups have proved unsuccessful, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin told the UN Security Council.

"Overall, we should admit the actual failure of the concept of moderate opposition", Churkin said on Wednesday.

Churkin noted that the concept "moderate opposition" did not translate into anything meaningful on the political level and, in the military context, the few moderate opposition members turned out to be affiliated with the al-Nusra and other terrorist groups.

Speaking about the new draft resolution on Syria — co-sponsored by New Zealand, Egypt and Spain and calling for a minimum ten-day halt of military operations — Churkin pointed out the key precondition for any ceasefire is the separation of moderate opposition from terrorists.

The Russian ambassador also said it was necessary to state in the draft resolution that the ceasefire would not apply to terrorists, listed by the UN Security Council in its resolutions.