US believes that Syrian opposition was not represented at Congress in Sochi
The American administration believes that the Syrian National Dialogue Congress held in Sochi was unbalanced and played into the hands of the authorities in Damascus, as stated on Thursday at a regular briefing for journalists by Heather Nauert, head of the State Department's press service.
"We took a look at that and we determined that it [the Congress] was far too heavily tilted toward the regime; the opposition wasn’t sufficiently represented.," said the official representative of the US State Department. According to Nauert, "The United States stands firmly behind the UN Geneva process." "As you all know, there was a Geneva meeting held in Vienna... and we stand firmly behind that," Nauert stressed.
The State Department Spokeswoman also made a statement on Thursday claiming that the United States believes Russia does not use its unique influence on the Syrian government to prevent the use of chemical and other attacks against the country’s population.
"I think it’s clear that Russia does have influence, but Russia is making the wrong choice. It’s making the choice not to use its unique influence with the Syrian regime. To allow the Syrian regime to use chemical or other weapons against its people yet again is absolutely unconscionable," Nauert said.
According to the spokeswoman, "Russia must do more" from Washington's point of view in order for the Syrian government to stop using chemical weapons against its population.