Syrian government forces are widely suspected of having carried out the attack, which led to a Russia-U.S. that destroyed Syria’s chemical weapons stocks under worldwide monitoring.
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Lavrov also met separately Friday with exiled Syrian opposition figure Haitham Manna. “As for a coalition in which Saudi Arabia would participate with the government of Syria, then we need to exclude that”.
On Thursday, however, Zarif said he is planning to visit Turkey next week. President Barack Obama said both Russian Federation and Iran had revised their attitudes toward the Assad regime.
In a sudden reversal, Moscow acquiesced last week to longstanding US demands for insertion of chemical weapons inspectors. “Assad is the root of the problem”, he said in an extended interview with Russian news agency Interfax.
Iran, representing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, had sought to extend the truce by an additional several days.
“Officially, Moscow has not rejected unwavering support for the Damascus government”, Alexander Shumilin of the Institute for US and Canada Studies told Voice of America. “But the situation around Syria is changing now, and Moscow is trying to adapt to this new, emerging situation”.
Speaking a day after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Syrian National Coalition president Khaled Khoja said that “the Russian leadership isn’t clinging to Bashar Assad” and is focusing on the need to preserve Syria’s territorial integrity.
The cease-fire halted fighting between insurgents on the one hand, and the army and its Lebanese militant Hezbollah allies on the other, in the rebel-held town of Zabadani and in a pair of Shiite Muslim villages in Idlib province.
Russian political analysts say rebels and jihadists have weakened the Syrian leader, forcing Moscow to reassess its position.
Despite the existence of palpable discord and lingering disagreement over the approach to resolving the Syrian crisis, Ankara and Tehran were, in most cases, able to keep their relations largely on track, never allowing their differences to affect the ties.
As talks proceed, developments on the ground are underscoring that any diplomatic settlement over Syria will be implemented through a militarized carve-up of the country, spearheaded by the Pentagon and its regional partners and proxy forces.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Russian Federation may give up on Assad.
