Lavrov: Solution in Syria should be a Syrian one

Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, reiterated that the UN Security Council would never allow any military intervention in Syria's affairs. Minister Lavrov, in a press conference in Sidney, Australia Tuesday, said that the solution in Syria should be a Syrian one; and that the Syrians themselves and all Syrian groups should sit at negotiations table and agree among themselves, asserting that 'Russia had never announced that the persistence of the regime was a pre-condition'. Minister Lavrov voiced regret over the instigations by some 'foreign players' in calling on the opposition to reject dialogue, describing such instigations as 'wrong', 'provocative' and as 'leading to nothing new'. Kosachyov: Russia and China Reject the New Draft UNSC Resolution on Syria First Deputy of the Chairman of the Russian Duma's International Relations Committee Konstantin Kosachyov criticized the attempts of some Western and Arab countries to pass a draft Security Council resolution on Syria without briefing the Council's members on the Arab League's observer mission's report about Syria. In a press statement, Kosachyov stressed that Russia cannot back such a draft resolution and that he believes that China also will oppose this resolution. He noted that just like Russia, China does not accept any foreign interference in the internal affairs of another country because such interferences contradict the main principles of the international law which provides that only the people of a certain country can have the right to self-determination. He made clear that the current draft resolution submitted by Morocco, backed by France, Britain and other Western countries, is not much different from the previous draft that Russia had rejected as it places full responsibility of what is going on in Syria on the official authorities only without directing any remarks to the opposition. Kosachyov said that the Russian leadership is fully convinced that the possibility for conducting dialogue between the Syrian authorities and the opposition representatives have not yet been exhausted. He pointed out that the Syrian opposition's complete rejection of conducting dialogue with the authorities is clear evidence on its misunderstanding of the signs sent to it earlier by the West, reminding of Russia' use of veto last October at the Security Council to prevent passing a resolution that blocks conducting political dialogue between the parties to the conflict in Syria. The Russian official stressed that his country's stance towards Syria stems from its main interest in contributing to conducting a political dialogue between all the parties in the countries with internal conflicts.