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Middle East and North Africa

Russian Foreign Minister: No military scenario in Syria

"There is no military solution to the Syrian problem" Sergei Lavrov stated during the talks with Syrian Vice-Prime Minister Qadri Jamil

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, July 22 (Itar-Tass) - The Syrian crisis cannot be settled by military means, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

At the talks with Syrian Vice-Prime Minister Qadri Jamil on Monday, Lavrov said, “There is no military solution to the Syrian problem. We’d like all parties involved in the conflict to know about it. We continue to meet with the government and all opposition groups and convince them to accept the Russian-American initiative on the convocation of the Geneva-2 conference as soon as possible without any preconditions.”

“Unfortunately, the majority of the opposition, including the National Coalition, is not ready for this that is why Moscow insists its partners, who can influence the Coalition, use it for the sake and give up the present unconstructive position,” the Russian minister stressed.

Lavrov said “We know that the Syrian government is open for the dialogue with the opposition. We call for continuing the efforts aimed involving all opposition groups in the upcoming Geneva conference.”

“I hope the conference will take place soon,” Lavrov said. “I want to rivet attention to the G-8 final declaration that urges the government and the opposition to expel terrorists and extremists.”

“We believe that this task should be one of the points of the international conference [on the Syrian settlement].” “It is necessary to work out concrete measures in order to implement the Geneva communique,” the Russian minister stressed.

“We consider important to use today’s possibility to exchange views on the situation in Syria and do our best to settle the crisis by political means. This situation arouses serious concern,” Lavrov said.

In addition to these issues, Russia hopes to discuss bilateral problems, the Russian minister said.

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