MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/. The Russian military will leave Syria after law and order are restored there, Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of Russia’s Federation Council International Affairs Committee said. 

"We are definitely not going to interfere in the internal affairs of Syria. As soon as law and order are restored there, Russia will leave Syria," the senator said.

He also expressed confidence that, if the Syrian people have an opportunity to determine their own political system of power in the country, the Syrians will cope with this task.

Assad's approach to negotiations with terrorists

Fundamental changes in Syria now allow President Bashar Assad to enter into peace talks with the militants from advantageous positions, Konstantin Kosachev said following Assad’s interview published on the website of the Syrian news agency SANA.

In part, Assad told the media that doing business with terrorists would be fundamentally wrong, but if a dialog might help stop bloodshed, it should be conducted, because putting an end to violence is the Syrian leadership’s paramount priority.

Assad underscored the idea that a hypothetical contact with the militants was not tantamount to a manifestation of trust towards them. Criminals will remain criminals, even if they come to the negotiating table a thousand times, he stated.

Kosachev believes that Assad’s statement does not run counter to Damascus’s previous logic: fighting against the enemy but at the same time offering talks to those who are ready to give up armed struggle.

"One should be aware that the fundamental changes in the state of affairs in Syria allow president Assad to act from advantageous positions," Kosachev said, adding that the Syrian leader was not proposing armistice, but giving a chance to the opponents to get out of bloodshed and find a way out of the stalemate of confrontation in which the militants’ positions do not look good at all."

Behind Assad’s intention to start negotiations "there are humanitarian motives, because they are the key reason for Assad’s criticism in the West."

"No other arguments in favor of the old-time demand for replacing the regime in Damascus just don’t exist," he said.

"After all it is the Syrian army that with Russia’s support has been dealing the strongest strikes against the terrorists," he said.

Many jihadists, Kosachev said, "are not interested in a dialogue at all, even against the backdrop of their own defeat."

"The sole language in dealing with them is the language of force, which continues to be used in defiance of the openly hypocritical protests by those who in fact dodge participation in anti-terrorist operations on far-fetched excuses," he said. "But that does not mean that Damascus should not come out with proposals at each phase of the confrontation: this is reasonable, humane and a sure sign of certainty about one’s strength," Kosachev said.