Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Thursday called on the West to push the Syrian opposition toward talks instead of setting deadlines for establishing the administrative mechanism in Syria.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Thursday called on the West to push the Syrian opposition toward talks instead of setting deadlines for establishing the administrative mechanism in Syria.

"With the lack of any desire to speed up inter-Syrian dialogue, some of our Western colleagues begin to say that August 1 is the deadline for establishing the joint administrative mechanism ," Lavrov said. "If you set any dates that were not approved by UN Security Council, you should at least push your patronized groupings toward sitting down at the negotiations table. Otherwise, it’s a profanation," he added.

"Originally we, the UN Security Council, reserved about 18 months for the whole process and the countdown seemed to have begun," Lavrov said. "The sole problem is: for the first step to be taken and governing machinery established it is necessary for the Syrians to come to the negotiating table and agree on the personalities, composition and functions."

"Attempts to bring them [the government and the opposition in Syria] to the negotiating table have failed so far. The UN Secretary General’s special envoy, Staffan de Mistura, held a couple of indirect rounds, working as a go-between," Lavrov went on to say. "When we held another meeting of the Syria Support Group in Vienna on May 17 and everybody encouraged de Mistura to go ahead with his efforts we expected that another intra-Syrian round of talks would be called in May and the process will accelerate."

"Now there have been reports that such a round of talks will hardly be called before the holy Muslim month of Ramadan," Lavrov said. "We are unhappy about that, let us be frank."

"While there is no wish to speed up the intra-Syrian dialogue some of our Western counterparts are beginning to say that August 1 is the deadline for creating a joint governing machinery, Lavrov said.

"If some deadlines are to be set which nobody has approved in the UN Security Council, those within the sphere of influence should be at least urged to come to the negotiating table. Otherwise this is sheer nonsense."

Lavrov delivered his statements during a joint press conference with his Saudi counterpart Adel Al Jubeir in Moscow after receiving the foreign ministers of the GCC to discuss the Middle East causes.

For his part, Al Jubeir emphasized the importance of discussing regional developments, especially in Syria and Iraq, besides what he said was the "Iranian interference" in the region’s affairs, noting the disagreement with Lavrov on fate of President Assad.