As the long-awaited Geneva 2 peace conference opens in Switzerland, follow our coverage of developments from the first day as they happened
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, centre, opens the so-called Geneva II peace talks Photo: AFP
By Hannah Strange, and Andrew Marszal
7:12PM GMT 22 Jan 2014
• Tense first day of peace conference in Montreux, Switzerland
• Regime and opposition to meet for first time on Friday
• Syrian minister and Ban Ki-moon clash in bitter exchange
• John Kerry says Syria not safe 'while Assad remains in power'
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19.12 With the press conferences drawing to a close we will wrap up our live coverage of the opening day of the Geneva 2 peace talks with a few final words from our Richard Spencer, our Middle East Correspondent, who is in Montreux:
It took three years to bring Syrians together for negotiations. It took less than an hour for acrimony and rancour to take over as diplomats bickered, fought and insulted each other at the start of long-awaited peace talks in Switzerland today. Walid al-Muallem, the Syrian foreign minister, appearing in the same room as the opposition for the first time, refused to address calls for President Bashar al-Assad to stand down. Instead he claimed the revolution against his rule comprised nothing more than terrorists sent to the country by "princes and emirs living in mud and backwardness".
In return, Ahmed al-Jarba, the head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, accused Mr Assad of committing atrocities not seen in Europe since the Second World War, and demanded he face justice for war crimes.
Meanwhile, outside the conference hall, fights broke out as anti-Assad Syrians approached a small pro-Assad demonstration and tried to address it. Inside the press room, an opposition journalist nearly came to blows with a regime press officer, who was in full flow of a loud speech denouncing the opposition in an incongruous Australian accent.
19.05 Bashar Jaafari's combative press conference has finally come to a close, in which he made repeated references to the rebels as "terrorists"
"Syria needs encouragement to engage in the sincere and honest implementation of Geneva 1, as I said, but to do so, we need all to put an end to the terrorism, and the violence, because the political settlement cannot go hand-in-hand with the terrorism"
18.25 Bashar Jaafari, Syrian Ambassador to the UN, is now airing his country's government's grievances about the conference so far.
"The format of today's meeting was somehow disappointing to us.
We had today 40 countries seemingly pre-selected in a way that most of them would be anti-Syrian delegations, meaning that they are coming from governments who have hostile policies toward the Syrian government.
At the same time paradoxically the secretary general excluded Iran... That created an imbalance in the format."
He also attacks the rhetoric of the various foreign delegations:
"The statements and speeches of most of those who took the floor today in the meeting did not encourage the national political dialogue.
It was a kind of provocative statements [sic], repetitive statements, old language, based on hatred towards the Syrian government and based on a kind of blind provocation which is counterproductive, fruitless and unsuccessful, not positive at all."
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18.12 The conference has now ended for the day, though closing press conferences are still ongoing. Meanwhile, footage has emerged online which appears to show clashes between pro- and anti-regime protesters gathered in Montreux:
18.05 John Kerry has just finished taking questions from journalists.
In response to a question about whether the military option is still on the table for the US in Syria, he replied:
"President Obama has never taken any option off the table in dealing with Syria... He made a decision to use force in the case of chemical weapons. [That case] got solved... The president has fully left that option on the table"
He refused to speculate on what may happen if, as expected, little significant progress is made in Geneva this week, stating that it would be inappropriate to do so on the first day of the conference.
17.55 Kerry is emphasising the need for political transition with some very strong words for Bashar al-Assad, saying that the 40 countries assembled at Geneva (with one exception) have all spoken in support of the Geneva communique's main principle, a "transition of goverment with full executive authority by mutual consent"
"Today people recognise how alone Assad is standing up for himself, not for Syria. The resolution to this crisis cannot be about one man or one family's insistence about clinging to power. It needs to be about empowering all Syrian people. The international community has expressed a united vision for Syria.
No-one should think there can be a place for a man who has turned on his own people, who permitted the death of 130,000...
There is no-one who has done more to make Syria a magnet for terrorists than Bashar al Assad. He is the single greatest magnet for terrorists in the region.
People who support the opposition will never stop becasue of what he has done and how he has done it.
You cannot save Syria from disintegration as long as Bashar al-Assad remains in power"
17.41 US Secretary of State John Kerry is about to speak. Meanwhile, Syrian journalists are complaining that they are not being permitted to ask questions:
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17.29 UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi has said he will meet both Syrian delegations separately on Thursday, but that it is not yet clear whether he will be able to bring the two sides face-to-face in the same room on Friday, according to Reuters.
"We will try to see if we meet Friday morning separately and hopefully by Friday afternoon both sides will sit in one room.
Describing the challenge ahead, Brahimi said: "We have no illusion that it is going to be easy but we are going to try very hard"
He also reportedly said the June 2012 agreement for a "unity government" made by world powers in Geneva will be the platform for this week's Syrian negotiations.
That meeting ended in a statement that a future Syrian government "could include members of the present government and the opposition and other groups and shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent".
That meeting also offered no future for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. However, the Syrian government has said of this week's talks: "Nobody will touch the Presidency
17.09 Ban Ki-moon is now taking questions from journalists, but also had a message about the significance of the peace process being led by the Syrians themselves:
"Our purpose was to send a message to the two Syrian delegations and to the Syrian people that the world wants an urgent end to the conflict. Enough is enough, the time has to come to negotiate.
Syrians have a long history of living together. They must take back all that they have lost.
This must be a Syrian led process, Syrian owned... which fully respects Syrian authority."
17.01 UN chief Ban Ki-moon is closing the day's talks with a press conference, in which he emphasises the importance of the next few days:
"Ending this war and making peace will be hard. We have taken a first small step here in Montreaux. We will take another step on Friday when the Syrian parties sit down... The really hard work begins on Friday
We did not expect instant breakthroughs. ... No one underestimated the difficulties. The Syrian people are looking desperately for relief from the nightmare in which they are trapped."
He also addresses the need for urgent humanitarian assistance and a united front against terrorism
"All parties must guarantee full humanitarian access, especially to beseiged areas... Food, medicine and surgical equipment must be allowed in; civilians, especially the wounded, must be allowed out. All parties must work to end terrorist attacks"
16.58 Monday's report on alleged torture and systematic mass killings by the Syrian regime continues to loom large over the conference as it draws to a close today. Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarba called for independent international experts to visit jails in the country to investigate the report - compiled by a team of war crimes prosecutors and forensic experts - which included thousands of photos of alleged victims of the regime supplied by a defected military police photographer.
Mr Jarba, in closing remarks to the conference, said: "We demand today that an international commission of inquiry visit the detention centres of the regime where they carried out their torture and killings."
The images - of bodies showing signs of starvation, strangulation or electrocution, or in some cases missing eyes - have prompted an international outcry and demands for war crimes charges against the Assad regime. However the Syrian government insists the photographs are fake and has decried the report as a politicised attempt to discredit Assad by Qatar, which commissioned it via a British law firm.
16.26 Another intriguing subplot at today's conference - US Secretary of State John Kerry has met with his Indian counterpart Salman Khurshid for the first time since a major row over the arrest in New York of an Indian diplomat.
Meeting on the sidelines of an international peace conference on Syria, Kerry and Khurshid "agreed to work with their teams back at home to schedule the energy dialogue soon and to stay in close touch in the coming months," the State Department official said in a statement, asking not to be named.
Relations between India and the United States, which had steadily warmed since the end of the Cold War, plunged on December 12 when authorities arrested New York consular official Devyani Khobragade over the treatment of her domestic servant.
Dr Khobragade, 39, was arrested and handcuffed as she dropped her daughter at school
16.17 Following high-profile diplomatic intervention from countries such as the US and Russia both prior to and during today's talks, Japan's foreign minister has suggested that the "kind of neutral position" of his country could help it to play an important intermediary role in the Syrian process.
"We are ready to invite the people from both sides," Koichi Mizushima told reporters in Montreux earlier.
However, Mr Mizushima emphasised that a very different tactic to arranging negotiations would be pursued were his country to take charge of proceedings.
"We would not invite Syrian officials, but promising young leaders from both sides, so that they can understand each other, and maybe they can resolve some misunderstanding," said Mizushima, deputy director of the Japanese foreign ministry's public diplomacy division.
Japan has already hosted several discreet rounds of talks between Israelis and Palestinians seen as likely to be their nations' leaders over the coming decade, he noted.
15.47 Tensions continue to run high in Geneva, with bitter exchanges not just limited to the official talks but also among the gathered press:
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15.27 Away from the Geneva talks, Syrian government forces are hailing today's reopening of Aleppo international airport after a year's closure as a sign of significant military progress against the rebels. Aleppo was formerly Syria's commercial hub and its most populous city, and remains of huge strategic and symbolic significance.
Syrian state television reported that a passenger flight carrying a media delegation from Damascus, 200 miles to the south, landed at 10:30am local time (8:30am GMT).
"The takeoff and landing of this plane was very successful," he said from the airport's landing strip. "This shows that the forces of the Syrian Arab Army - even as military operations continue in Aleppo and its suburbs - have extended their full control over the area surrounding Aleppo international airport."
However, rebels have held roughly half of Aleppo since storming into the city in mid-2012, holding off a government counter-offensive and consolidating their control over rural areas and the northern border with Turkey.
Media members gather around a plane after it lands at Aleppo international airport (REUTERS)
15.20 Having broadcast Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarbar's speech alongside footage of "terrorist crimes" in Syria, the country's state media has now delivered a scathing assessment of Saudi Arabia's foreign ministers Saud al-Faisal 's comments in his own speech.
"In his address, the minister of the terrorist Saud family delivered a series of lies and deceptions. He rambles and dreams of making Geneva II a conference that will serve his illusions," said Syrian state news agency SANA.
"His kingdom helps... fuel the crisis in Syria by supporting terrorism," SANA added, accusing the Saudi minister of being "disconnected from reality."
14.43 A delegate from the Syrian opposition has told Reuters that they plan to present a three to six month timetable to set up a transitional governing body, in order to prevent talks with the Assad regime from dragging on for years:
Anas al-Abdah told Reuters that the proposal will be put forward when formal negotiations begin under United Nations auspices in Geneva on Friday - providing the Damascus government accepts the very idea of a transitional authority.
"First, the regime delegation has to commit to Geneva 1," Abdah said, referring to an international plan to establish a transitional governing body, with full executive powers, agreed by world powers in June 2012.
"Without the regime signing up to Geneva 1 we will not have a bottom line or a reference point for the talks."
The Syrian government has not publicly endorsed the roadmap and Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said on Wednesday that it was for the Syrians to decide their fate and their ruler.
"We already have names in mind for the Transitional Governing Body and both sides will have a veto on the names. We do not have a problem with that," Abdah said.
"But the regime does. Assad's foreign minister spoke for half an hour today without mentioning Geneva 1," he said, referring to Moualem's lengthy opening speech to the international conference on Syria.
"If the regime does not sign up to Geneva 1 we will not repeat the mistake of the Palestinians and let these talks drag for years. We have no issue about how we will sit with the regime on Friday, whether in one room in proximity talks or two rooms. But the regime has to sign up."
14.30 Here's a selection of thoughts from Twitter on today's developments:
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14.16 As the delegates begin their afternoon session, we'll turn to the Twittersphere to see what you think about the talks. Will they succeed? What needs to happen for progress to be made? Tweet me @hannahkstrange
13.52 An interesting rundown of the bizarre diplomatic debacle over Iran's attendance which almost led to the talks collapsing before they began, over at the New York Times.
13.38 While we wait for the delegates to return, here's a transcript published by the Associated Press of the terse exchange between Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Muellem and UN chief Ban Ki-moon when the former exceeded the allotted time for his speech earlier today. The bell had rung five times when Mr Ban intervened.
Ban: Can you just wrap up please.
Al-Muallem: I came here after 12 hours in the airplane, I have few more minutes to end my speech. This is Syria.
Ban: How much do you have left now?
Al-Muallem: I think 5-10 minutes.
Ban: No, no. I will give you another opportunity to speak.
Al-Muallem: No, I cannot divide my speech. I must continue ... I will do my best to be fast.
Ban: Can you just wrap up in one or two minutes?
Al-Muallem: No, I can't promise you, I must finish my speech. ... You live in New York, I live in Syria. I have the right to give the Syrian version here in this forum. After three years of suffering, this is my right.
Ban: We have to have some constructive and harmonious dialogue, please refrain from inflammatory rhetoric.
Al-Muallem: It is constructive, I promise you, let me finish.
Ban: Within 2-3 minutes please, I will give you another opportunity.
Al-Muallem: You spoke for 25 minutes, at least I need to speak 30 minutes.
A few minutes later, Ban interrupts again. Al-Muallem says he has one sentence left, to which Ban asks him to keep his promise.
"Syria always keeps its promises," al-Muallem replied, triggering approving laughter from the Syrian government delegation behind him and a wry grin from Ban.
13.03 The Geneva 2 delegates have gone for lunch. Normal service to resume shortly.
12.45 Watch William Hague as he calls for a transitional governing body in Syria:
12.14 An interesting snippet from AFP on how state television in Syria is presenting the talks:
"Syrian state television on Wednesday broadcast a speech by opposition chief Ahmad Jarba at peace talks in Switzerland alongside footage of "terrorist crimes" in Syria.
"The state broadcaster failed to identify Jarba as he began his speech at the conference in the Swiss town of Montreux.
"In a split screen, it showed Jarba on the right, under the heading "Montreux, Switzerland," and on the left footage of death and destruction under the heading "Terrorist Crimes in Syria."
"It left up quotes from Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, who spoke before Jarba, in a breaking news alert on the bottom of the screen as Jarba spoke.
"State television used the same format when Turkey and Saudi Arabia's foreign ministers Ahmet Davutoglu and Saud al-Faisal spoke.
"Both Turkey and Saudi are key backers of the rebels fighting to overthrow Assad.
"While the two chief diplomats were shown on the right of the screen, the images on the left were of summary executions, bombings, pools of blood, destroyed buildings and dead bodies, including the body of a child."
12.09 Now they're arguing about the arguments. The US has condemned the Syrian foreign minister for his "inflammatory" speech, saying Walid al-Muallem's remarks were not in keeping with the aims or spirit of the gathering.
Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that instead of laying out a "positive vision" for Syria's future, the foreign minister chose "inflammatory rhetoric".
The US was joined in its criticism by Ban Ki-Moon, who complained that Mr al-Muallem had used his speech to attack other participants at the peace talks.
11.56 As the key players in the Syria crisis come to verbal blows in Switzerland, forces on the ground are engaged in deadly battles across the country, according to activists and Syrian state media.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported clashes between government forces and opposition fighters in the suburbs of Damascus, Daraa in the south, Idlib and Aleppo in the north and the central province of Homs.
Meanwhile the state news agency SANA says government forces battled "terrorists" around the country - including the northern province of Idlib where fighters from Chechnya, Egypt, Turkey, Bosnia and Iraq were killed.
Rebel fighters in Aleppo
11.45 One curiosity about these talks is that it doesn't just bring the Syrian regime and opposition leaderships together for the first time, but also their retinues, including journalists, Richard Spencer writes:
"A regime press officer who was denying to the cameras in the media coffee area all evidence of regime brutality was just challenged by a Syrian reporter for Orient TV, an anti-Assad channel, leading to finger-pointing, shouting and a general scrummage on all sides. Luckily the mass of reporters who flocked to witness the fight sufficed to keep the two apart. Meanwhile, a presenter from Syrian state TV who defected a year ago and now works for a London-based channel tells me he tried to go and say hello to his former colleagues, who turned away and refused to acknowledge him. As he pointed out, Syrian state media are closely monitored, including by intelligence operatives in their midst." 11.40 Even in the opening gambits, we have come right to the stumbling block of the Geneva 2 talks: the Syrian regime says the departure of Assad is a "red line"; the opposition and their foreign backers are equally absolute in their stance. At this point, it's hard to see where negotiations can go from here. It's going to be a very long conference.
11.23 Strong words from the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal. He demands all foreign fighters leave the country, including Lebanese Hizbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and insists there can be no role whatsover in the transition for Assad and those whose hands are "stained in blood".
It's worth noting here that Saudi Arabia itself has been accused of turning a blind eye the flow of Saudi jihadis into Syria. While there is an official ban on Saudi citizens going to Syria for jihad, it is not enforced, and Interior Ministry officials say at least a thousand have gone, some from prominent families, as the New York Times noted recently.
But the foreign minister defended the kingdom - which acknowledges backing the rebels - from Mr Muallem's claims that it was bank-rolling terror. The 100,000 people who were killed, he asked, "Were they all terrorists?"
11.05 Our chief foreign correspondent, David Blair, looks at the competing narratives surrounding the Syrian conflict:
"The speeches by Syria's foreign minister and William Hague show the competing narratives to explain crisis. To Walid al-Muallem, the Assad regime's envoy, an influx of foreign-sponsored "terrorists" has caused the entire civil war. The focus of the conference should, therefore, be on dealing with this. Muallem tried to appear magnanimous by graciously agreeing to be in the same room as representatives of the countries behind this "terrorism". "But Hague pointed out that Syria's crisis began with the repression of peaceful demonstrations against Assad back in 2011. "It was because of that repression that the protests escalated into a mass uprising and civil war," said Hague. The problem with Muallem's narrative is that it conveniently leaves out the first year or so of the killing."
10.25 Our correspondent Richard Spencer looks at the issues facing the Arab League and European Union:
"Nabil El-Araby, the Egyptian secretary-general of the Arab League, is in a difficult position. It is formally a sponsor of the peace process (Lakhdar Brahimi is an Arab League as well as UN envoy) and it has taken a generally anti-Assad line under the auspices of its powerful Gulf states members like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. But it also has to keep Assad allies like Algeria, Iraq and - in its own peculiarly fractious way - Lebanon on board. Nevertheless, he criticises the regime for not keeping its promises. "Then we have the other great world quango: the European Union. Baroness Ashton, among other things, calls for more women to be more fundamentally involved in the transition process, an element that Mr Hague has also been pushing."
10.19 The UN chief intervenes to help Mr Hague with his microphone (well at least that's one issue resolved). Richard Spencer writes:
"No, it's not just the press room. Eventually Mr Ban steps in to say he can't hear him either, and normal service is resumed. "Extremists are a "tiny minority" in the opposition, he says. He is not so overt in calling for President Bashar al-Assad to go as Mr Kerry but he too lays stress on the Geneva 1 Communique that called for a transitional government. "We have no illusion about how difficult and challenging this process is likely to be but we should all do everything we can to help the people of Syria achieve peace."
"Not much to disagree with there. And he doesn't seem to get into trouble for over-speaking etc, and Mr Ban thanks his "leadership".
10.18 William Hague takes the floor. But there are technical issues...
Richard Spencer says: "Now it's the big moment for our very own William Hague, the Foreign Secretary.
"He urges both Syrian delegations to approach these talks knowing that the future of Syria is at stake. Unfortunately, Mr Hague's microphone fails just as he is getting under way, which he appears not to realise as he continues earnestly without realising that no-one - at least in the press room - can hear him." 10.11 Ahmed Jarba, the head of the Syrian National Coalition, has finished speaking. Richard Spencer looks at who's up next.
"Mr Jarba brings to an end the main players in this drama, at least until we get to the Gulf State backers of the Syrian opposition. There is no public opportunity for meaningful compromise now till the two sides meet again on Friday. Does that mean the conference is over? No, of course not. There are another 38 speeches scheduled today, including from representatives of such diverse places as Indonesia, the Vatican and - Mexico. Again, I ask, why Mexico? 
Ahmed Jarba
"First though we have what can only be described as the United Nations B Team - China, France and the UK, the other three permanent, veto-holding members of the UN security council. That's being done in alphabetical order, meaning China is first. It has lurked in Russia's diplomatic slip stream throughout this crisis, saying at every point: "I agree with Vladimir".
"It seems China wants a peaceful outcome, and generally speaking still agrees with Vladimir."
10.05 Adding a particularly gruesome taint to the backdrop of the conference is Monday's report on alleged mass killings and torture by the Assad regime. Commissioned a British law firm on behalf of Qatar, the report includes thousands of photographs of dead bodies of detainees allegedly killed in government custody, many of whom are emaciated and display signs of strangulation.
One of thousands of images in the report
09.54
Mr Jarba has finished his speech, calling for quick action. "Time is like a sword and for Syrian people time is now blood," he says.
Our correspondent Richard Spencer says: "It is a sad fact that in this war even the literary flourishes are pretty gruesome."
09.49 Ahmed Jarba, the head of the Syrian National Coalition, is speaking now. It hasn't taken long to get to the key sticking point of the conference - the opposition demand that Assad must go, which the regime has made clear is a "red line". Our correspondent Richard Spencer says:
"Mr Jarba is somewhat calmer. He starts off, though, by telling the story of the first child killed in Homs, the first city to be engulfed by the war, an 11-year-old girl killed at an army checkpoint. "He then moves on to the role of Hizbollah and Iran, saying that only the Free Syrian Army is really fighting terrorism. He accuses the Assad regime of facilitating access to Syria of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, the al-Qaeda group that is the most violent among those fighting that is responsible for the most gruesome rebel killings and decapitations.
"He says that Geneva 1 demanded a transitional government and that Mr Assad must go."
09.33 Walid al-Muellem, the Syrian foreign minster, finally gives way to the head of the opposition Syrian National Coaltion, but not before sparring again with Ban Ki-moon.
Richard Spencer reports:
"Mr Ban tries again to bring Mr Muallem to a close. He promises that he will go on for one more minute, but carries on beyond that. Then he promises just to finish one more sentence - something he did with a sentence with a very large number of subordinate clauses. "His message was uncompromising: the entire war was waged from outside by Syria's external enemies, who had brought rape, murder and decapitation to the Syrian people. The world should not discuss peace or Syrian politics, but unite to fight the common scourge of Wahhabi terrorism.
"No signs of holding out a hand of friendship on show yet at these talks. Next is Ahmed Jarba, head of the Syrian National Coalition."
09.29 A standoff over speaking times has just taken place between the Syrian foreign minister and Ban Ki-Moon. Our correspondent Richard Spencer reports:
"That was just an extraordinary exchange between Mr Muallem and Ban Ki-moon. The UN secretary-general told him he was going over his 20-minute time limit but he refused to stop. "You live in New York, I live in Syria," he said. "I have the right to give the Syrian version in this forum. Anyway, you spoke for 25 minutes."
"Mr Ban urged him to limit himself to another one or two minutes. "My speech is indivisible," he replied. And continued."
Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Muallem
09.17 John Kerry, the US foreign secretary, has addressed the conference, followed by Assad's envoy, Walid al-Muallem, the Syrian foreign minister.
Our correspondent Richard Spencer says:
"John Kerry repeated the core American view that the cause of the crisis was repression "again and again" of peaceful demonstrations. He urged the implementation of the Geneva 1 Communique, which called for a transitional government to be formed acceptable to both sides. "It is impossible that such a government could be formed under President Bashar al-Assad as that would not be acceptable to the opposition. Since it is clear that Mr Assad has no intention to agree to anything that will end his rule, some might say the conference could stop there. But Mr Assad's envoy, foreign minister Walid al-Muallem is up next.
"He proceeds to launch into a violently worded diatribe against "princes and emirs living in mud and backwardness" - by which he means Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states - and "backstabbing neighbours", in particular Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister of Turkey, who is the first enemy of Syria to get a name-check."
09.08 As the peace talks began Syria's justice ministry has rejected Monday's report alleging mass torture and killing by the regime, claiming that it is "politicised" and that the photos are fake. The report was commissioned by Qatar - which indeed is agitating for Assad's departure - and compiled by a British law firm.
08.54
United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon has addressed the conference, saying Syrians bear the primary responsibility for ending the civil war. He has also acknowledged that the peace talks face "formidable challenges". Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has also given a brief statement, claiming that the crisis has been caused by outside powers trying to push for reforms too fast when it should happen organically, at its own pace.
Our correspondent in Montreux, Richard Spencer, says: "That is clearly a dig at American backing for 'pro-democracy' regime change across the region - Lavrov specifically said this applied to the Middle East and North Africa".
Source
P.S.
***They ask, why Mexico?
And, I ask why the Vatican?
..
