Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced on Monday that Moscow has invited Kurdish representatives to attend the Sochi-hosted congress on Syria set for next week. “Kurdish officials are on the list of Syrian guests to the national dialogue congress,” he said during a press conference. He also stressed the need to ensure the role of the Kurds in the political settlement to the crisis. Separately, Lavrov criticized the United States’ actions in Syria, saying they were either a “deliberate provocation” or Washington lacked an understanding of the situation there. He added that the US has been "discouraging the Kurds from dialogue" with the Syrian regime and "fomenting separatist sentiment" among them shows "lack of understanding of the situation or a deliberate provocation." Moreover, the Russian minister said that the US had allowed the formation of “alternative authorities” in large parts of Syria, saying that Washington has been covertly sending weapons to the factions that it is cooperating with. These include the Syrian Democratic Forces, he stated. The US had on Sunday urged Turkey to exercise restraint and cease its operation in Afrin in northwestern Syria where it had launched a military offensive against US-backed Kurdish forces in order to keep them away from its borders.