Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov agreed, however, during their Saturday meeting “to work together to apply the Geneva I agreement that provides for a peaceful transfer of power in Syria,” according to remarks by a Saudi spokesman following the talks.
The ministers also said they were keen to “preserve the independence and territorial integrity of Syria,” the spokesman said in comments reported by the Saudi state news agency SPA.
Lavrov and Prince Saud also highlighted the importance of “combating terrorist organizations that have exploited the crisis to find safe haven on Syrian territory.”
The spokesman did not elaborate on the differences between the two officials over the Syrian crisis, only saying that they discussed the “deterioration of the situation in Iraq and its consequences in the region.”
ISIL terrorists in Iraq, who are widely believed to be backed by the Saudi regime, have launched a major offensive against the central government on June 9, seizing swathes of territory.
The Takfiri militants also operates in Syria, and seeks to carve out their brand of “Islamic state” straddling the border between the two states.
Lavrov and Prince Saud also said efforts should be made to “maintain the integrity of Iraq and the unity of all the components of the Iraqi people, who should benefit from equality of rights and duties.”
However, Saudi Arabia said that this goal would be difficult to achieve “without the formation of a national unity government representing all Iraqis without discrimination or exclusion.”
Such remarks come as the Saudi regime is itself a globally-recognized dictatorship that brutally suppresses and discriminates against its large Shia population while actively backing the violent crackdown of the neighboring Bahraini regime on an uprising by its majority Shia population.
Prince Saud took over the kingdom’s oversight of its Syria policy from the head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, in February 2013.
The latter, who was asked by Riyadh to step down in April, was an ardent backer of funding, arming and unifying armed terrorists and insurgents in Syria.
His last public assignment was a failed attempt in December to press Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop supporting Assad.
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