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Sarkozy asks Russia to support the LAS plan on Syria

Paris calls on Moscow to support the plan of the League of Arab States, which includes the transfer of power in Syria

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

PARIS, February 9 (Itar-Tass) —— Paris calls on Moscow to support the plan of the League of Arab States /LAS/, which includes the transfer of power in Syria.

France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed this position during his telephone conversation with Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday night, the Elisee Palace said on Thursday.

Paris still insists Bashar Assad should leave and asks the Russian side “to give full support” to the LAS’ plan. France claims that Assad’s leaving will “prevent a civil war” in Syria.

During the conversation, Sarkozy stressed it was “necessary to add pressure on the Syrian regime in order to stop the repressions,” the Elisee Palace reported.

The telephone conversation was organised at the initiative of the French side.

Earlier, the Kremlin’s press service said that during the conversation, Medvedev presented to his French counterpart results of the negotiations of Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Mikhail Frankov with President Assad and Syria’s leaders, which happened on February 7 in Damascus.

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