Russia not to participate in Paris meeting on Syria

Russia will not take part in an "international ministerial meeting on Syria" to be held in Paris on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said. "I can confirm that we have received an invitation to this event," Lukashevich said in a statement published on the Foreign Ministry website. "We have also sent our reply to the French side. It is negative," he added. The meeting organizers "apparently had low expectations" Russia would attend, he added, which is why they sent their invitation to Moscow "less than 48 hours" before the event. Russia's news agency (RIA Novosti) quoted Lukashevich as saying "Russia’s approach to this kind of meeting is well-known." The Paris event, he said, is "one-sided," just as recent meetings of the so-called Friends of Syria group of countries in Tunisia and Turkey, because no representatives of the Syrian government have been invited.