‘Syrian opposition will lose out if it boycotts Moscow talks’

MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday Syrian opposition representatives would risk losing influence in peace efforts if they do not attend planned talks in Moscow.

The refusal of prominent opposition figures to attend the January 26-29 meeting, intended to bring together representatives of President Bashar Assad and Syrian opposition groups, has dealt a blow to Russian efforts to seek solution to the Syrian conflict.

"Those who decide not to take part in this event, they will lose in terms of their positions in the peace talks process as a whole," Lavrov told a news conference.

Moscow, Assad's key ally, says it still hopes the Western-backed National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces will be represented at the talks.

Some 200,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Syria, which started with street protests against Assad in March 2011, and then descended into a civil war. Radical Islamist groups have gained an upper hand in the insurgency.

In rejecting the invitation to Moscow, the Western-backed opposition Syrian National Coalition said on January 7 it would sit down to talks only if they would lead to Assad giving up power.

Moscow says the emphasis should instead be on fighting Islamist militants and that Assad's exit should not be a precondition to peace talks that stalled early last year.

US secretary of state John Kerry said in Geneva on Wednesday he hoped "that the Russian efforts could be helpful".

Moscow's renewed diplomatic push on Syria came as its ties with the West soured over another conflict — in Ukraine.