WASHINGTON, June 7 (Itar-Tass) — State Secretary Hillary Clinton has voiced doubts on Russia’s proposals to convene an international conference on Syria with the participation of Iran.

It is rather difficult to imagine as it possible to invite a country, which helps the Bashar al-Assad regime behind the scenes take repressive actions against its own people, Clinton said.

On her way to Istanbul she told journalists that the Friends of Syria Group meeting would focus on a strategy on handover of power in Syria by democratic means. So, U.S. officials believe that the Syrian president should outgo.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov put forth a proposal to convene the international conference on Syria in Beijing. The minister said the conference was indispensable to convince the parties to cease violence and start talks.

“We find it essentially important to fulfil Kofi Annan’s peace plan and the UN Security Council resolution, which approved this plan, and we find it necessary to convene a meeting of the countries, which influence really various opposition groups,” the Russian foreign minister said. “There are no many of them,” Lavrov noted, adding that the Russian initiative concerns the permanent members of the UN Security Council, leading regional countries, particularly Turkey and Iran, as well as the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. “The European Union can make its contribution,” the minister added.

“This meeting in contrast to the meetings of the so-called Group of Syrian Friends, which were devoted to the support for only the Syrian National Council, was that at the first stage without Syrians all foreign players will agree to fulfil Kofi Annan’s peace plan fairly and without double standards ,” Lavrov noted. He added that Moscow and Beijing find the appeals to foreign interference as the way to a catastrophe.