Russia confirmed to the United States that Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-sham are not opposition groups but terrorist organizations.

Russia confirmed to the United States that Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-sham are not opposition groups but terrorist organizations.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Wednesday “Moscow confirmed to Washington that Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-sham organizations can’t be on the list of the Syrian opposition because they are terrorists”.

An inter-Syrian meeting is due to be held between the Syrian government and opposition in Geneva on 25 January as arranged by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura’s.

“We think that the opposition delegations mustn’t be represented by terrorists, rather by the powers which call for a political settlement,” Russia Today quoted Gatilov as saying during a tripartite meeting with de Mistura and US Assistant Secretary of State Anne Patterson in Geneva.

The aforementioned terrorist organizations are propagandist of the military solution for the crisis in Syria, Gatilov added.

He pointed out that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold a meeting with his US counterpart John Kerry next week to discuss issues related not only to the Syrian issue.

For his part, De Mistura expressed hope the inter-Syrian meeting be held on due time January 25, clarifying that the meeting aims at achieving progress on Geneva talks and affirming that he consulted with the representatives of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council because there are still outstanding issues.

Meanwhile, de Mistura’s spokesperson Jessy Chahine said that the latter is sending invitations for attending Geneva meeting due on January 25th.