CAIRO (Sputnik) — Syria's Cairo-formed moderate opposition group plans to hold a third meeting in the Egyptian capital after the conclusion of the upcoming peace talks in Astana and Geneva, Qassem Khatib, a secretary of the Popular Diplomacy Movement, told Sputnik on Friday.
"Preparations are ongoing for the Syrian opposition meeting in Cairo. This meeting is not related to the Astana talks. The first such conference took place on January 23, 2015. This was a preliminary meeting, then we had Cairo-2 on June 7-8 that year. We now see that we need Cairo-3. We will, of course, hold the meeting after Astana and after the fourth Geneva round… Around a week or a month afterwards," Khatib said.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will take part in the meeting, which is a step up in terms of Egyptian involvement compared to the previous two meetings under the auspices of the Foreign Ministry, according to Khatib.
"We see Egypt's important role in Syrian settlement, as the country opposes meddling in internal affairs and supports political settlement," he said.
