Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there is a good opportunity to strike an agreement with the United States on the withdrawal of all militants from eastern Aleppo at the meeting of experts on Saturday.

“If the US experts again do not change their mind and put nothing new on the table, there is a very good opportunity to agree on how to finalize the settlement in eastern Aleppo by the withdrawal of all militants from there,” Lavrov told reporters on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council’s meeting.

Lavrov recalled that over the past days he has contacted with US Secretary of State John Kerry several times and an agreement was reached on holding a meeting of Russian and US experts in Geneva on Saturday, TASS Russian news agency reported.

However, he said he cannot be sure that “there won’t be any surprise again.” “That’s because it is very unclear how the US side behaves itself at the negotiations with us on Syria,” he said.

On the other hand, Lavrov said the arms supplied by the US to the so-called “moderate opposition” detachments go to terrorists, as a rule, but the militants surrounded in Eastern Aleppo will not get reinforcements.

“I do not think it will have a significant impact on the situation in Eastern Aleppo as in Eastern Aleppo the bandits are surrounded and will hardly ever get an opportunity to get reinforcements,” Russia’s top diplomat said.

“However, from the point of view of the further development of the Syrian situation, certainly, replenishment of arms can pose a major risk as practically in the overwhelming majority of cases the weapons delivered to the so-called moderate opposition go to terrorists.”

Source: TASS