TASS--  She said that later the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council would have to make a decision concerning the group’s expansion. "France suggested that Turkey, Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia be included, but the five permanent members of the UN Security Council failed to reach an agreement on that," the French ambassador noted.

According to Bermann, France, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom and China as permanent members of the UN Security Council agreed that they would be the only members of the Contact Group for Syria for the time being.

The initiative to establish an international contact group was put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron at a meeting with his US counterpart Donald Trump in mid-July. French Ambassador to Russia Sylvie Bermann said in an interview with TASS that the core group should include the five permanent member states of the UN Security Council.