Lavrov: The United States hindered the formation of the International Committee last year

North-Press Agency

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the United States of obstructing the formation of the Constitutional Committee, asserting that had it not been intervened last year, it would have been formed.

“I am pleased that those efforts to derail the constitutional process have stalled,” Lavrov said at a press conference in New York during the UN General Assembly.

Lavrov stressed that these efforts wanted to frustrate any solution in Syria and “incite confrontation and justify the use of force,” he said.

“I am comfortable with the prevailing of common sense, including our Western partners from the so-called counter-terrorist coalition,” he added.

Lavrov explained that had it not been for these obstacles, the Committee would have been set up in September last year, but they continued to assist the Syrian government and the opposition and succeeded in finding a consensus formula.

Moreover, Lavrov pointed out that he discussed the formation of the Syrian constitutional committee with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on Friday, and said that their meeting was “important and useful to help the Syrians.”

Lavrov also stressed the need to resolve the Kurdish issue within the framework of the Syrian territory, he added: “We believe that this should be a subject of negotiations with the participation of the Syrian command.”

Earlier in 2015 Russia intervened in the Syrian conflict at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as it supported Syrian government forces in its battles against armed opposition groups, and succeeded in helping it regain territories which it had lost to the opposition and the Islamic State.