In a related twist on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that he is hopeful that global diplomats, including from the us, will soon agree on a list of moderate Syrian opposition groups that should be invited to an upcoming round of U.N.-brokered peace talks on Syria.
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This story was first published on CNN.com, “Russian official opens door to Assad’s exit, says Syrian people should decide”.
But divisions remain on the fate of Mr Assad, with Russian Federation and Iran resisting pressure from Western powers and Saudi Arabia to force the Syrian leader from power.
It called for efforts to reach a ceasefire but failed to even mention the key – and divisive – issue of Assad’s future.
Asked whether it was crucial for Moscow that Assad stays, spokeswomen Maria Zakharov reportedly said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station: “Absolutely not, we’ve never said that”.
“We sent there not just fighter planes, strike aircraft and helicopters but also anti-aircraft rocket systems”, Bondarev told Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid daily.
When you joined us on Viewpoint last month you said one reason for Russia’s involvement in Syria was that Moscow wanted to keep Assad in regime power.
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Maj Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari, acknowledged that Russian Federation “may not care if Assad stays in power as we do”.
Spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that Moscow hasn’t obtained through diplomatic channels or other sources official any information from Washington about accusations that Russia is destroying civilian infrastructure, fighting the opposition instead of ISIS terrorist organizations and hitting undeclared targets, noting that the US Department of State evades answering these allegations.
It was taken by surprise by the Russian military intervention at the end of September, which Moscow cast as a complementary fight against “terrorism”.
Both sides confirmed they were willing to continue political dialogue, it said.
Russian Federation said last week that it had met with members of the Syrian opposition, although it did not specify which groups or individuals were involved.
Lavrov spoke at a press conference after meeting in Moscow with United Nations envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura to discuss the process of finding a political solution to the conflict that has left more than 240,000 people dead since March 2011.
The list included mostly former and current members of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SNC), a Western-backed political opposition block, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported on Tuesday.
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In the west, Russian warplanes carried out airstrikes in Hama province while unidentified jets bombarded the outskirts of the IS-held city of Raqqa in the north. It was still a major step, however, in that it brought most of the main backers of forces fighting in Syria to the same table.
