ASTANA (Sputnik) — The sponsors of Syria's High Negotiations Committee (HNC) opposition group should understand it is no longer respectable to toe their line, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.
"Those who directly influence and finance the High Negotiations Committee should of course think about the fact that further toeing the line of these opposition members who are occupying a destructive position is no longer respectable," Lavrov said.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with opposition factions and Islamist terrorist groups such as Daesh and al-Nusra Front, now known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, both outlawed in Russia and the United States, fighting the Syrian Army.