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Conflict in Syria

Syrian settlement can be only peaceful — Lavrov

Russia rejects any preliminary agreements that say that Syrian President Bashar Assad will have to leave his post, Russian Foreign Minister said

Javad Zarif and Sergey Lavrov TASS/Anton Novoderezhkin

Javad Zarif and Sergey Lavrov

© TASS/Anton Novoderezhkin

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Syrian opposition and Moscow didn't discuss alternative to Bashar al-Assad — NCSROF chief

MOSCOW, August 17./TASS/. Syrian settlement can be only peaceful, and only the Syrian people themselves can decide their fate, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after talks with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif on Monday.

"We exchanged opinions on the situation in the Middle East and in North Africa," Lavrov said. "Special attention was paid to effort towards contribution to the Syrian settlement, that can be only peaceful and can be achieved only on the basis on negotiations between the Syrian parties without interference from outside," Lavrov said.

Russia rejects any preliminary agreements that say that Syrian President Bashar Assad will have to leave his post, Russian Foreign Minister said.

"Several our partners think that they need to agree beforehand that Assad will leave his post after a transitional period. Russia does not accept this position," Lavrov said.

Moscow and Tehran are also in favor of resolving situations in Iraq and Yemen without foreign intervention, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov added.

"We have similar approaches to events in Iraq and Yemen," Lavrov said. "We support national dialogue to resolve the problems, not imposed scripts from the outside."

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