MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. Attempts by outside forces to use the situation in Syria to reshape the map of the Middle East and North Africa led to the crisis in this Arab country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday in an interview with UK Channel 4.
"It’s a war, which started by mistakes made on the part of everyone, including the Syrian government. I believe these disturbances could be handled politically at the early stage," Lavrov said.
"But we have now on our hands what is the result of outside forces… having tried to use this situation in order to reshape the map of the Middle East and Northern Africa by trying to get into Syria without any invitation and trying to promote their own agenda there," he continued.
Russia’s top diplomat added that Russia was now undertaking efforts together with Turkey and Iran, both present on the ground (Turkey without invitation, Iran with invitation of the Syrian government). To that end, the three nations "managed pragmatically to create what we call ‘Astana process’ or the ‘Astana format,’" Lavrov said.
"Given the fact that Russia, Iran cooperate with Turkey on the basis of decisions which lead to de-escalation, the Syrian government accepted Astana process as such and it is part of the process together with the armed opposition," he said. "They regularly meet and try to create conditions for the resolution of the Security Council - Resolution 2254 - to be implemented.".