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Conflict in Syria

Lavrov hopes warmongers eager to attack Syria won’t gain upper hand in US

Lavrov assured that the US Secretary of State never mentioned during phone talks or personal meetings that the Syrian crisis had a military solution

© Alexander Scherbak/TASS

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MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. Moscow hopes that the United States’ warmongers eager to attack Syria will not prevail, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following talks with his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault.

"We keep reading reports that some in Washington are eager to use force. This is no secret," he said. "I do hope that they will not gain the upper hand, though. We’ve heard a rather balanced White House commentary in reply to a request for a comment on these rumors."

"We do hope that this reflects the main policy the Barack Obama Administration is conducting," Lavrov said.

He said US Secretary of State John Kerry has never said during phone talks and personal meetings that the Syrian crisis has a military solution.

"We have been regularly talking with US Secretary of State John Kerry: over 55 phone conversations this year, about 10 personal meetings, and I have never heard him saying this situation has a military solution," the Russian foreign minister said.

He said that when the International Syria Support Group was being established, some countries, including the United States, insisted that the statement on impossibility to solve the Syrian crisis by military means be included in the declaration, but the initiative "was not supported by several ISSG members, not the United States."

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Russian Defense Ministry warns US against missile, air strikes on Syrian troops

At the same time, Lavrov said "the question why diplomacy doesn’t work at this stage should probably be addressed to Washington."

"There are many pieces of evidence that Americans are already sending a military signal to [Syrian President Bashar] Assad, when the positions of the Syrian army in Deir-ez-Zor were bombed, and after that action ISIL (Islamic State terrorist organization banned in Russia) began attacking," he said.

"I discussed that with John Kerry, he states firmly that it was definitely a mistake, which should be forgotten and not be considered as a new policy of the United States," Lavrov said.

"But it was after that strike that the Syrian government made a sharp statement on withdrawal from the regime of cessation of hostilities," he said.

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Foreign policy Sergey Lavrov Syrian conflict

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Here are the key statements, made during the meeting

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IN BRIEF: What Putin said about Russia’s new missile, and Moscow’s response to the West

Moscow used its new Oreshnik medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile in response to the West’s decision to authorize strategic-depth strikes on Russia

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