
Russia voiced support on Saturday for international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi but insisted the Syrian leadership exit cannot be a precondition for a deal to end the country’s conflict,according to Reuters.
A Russian Foreign Ministry statement following talks on Friday with the United States and Brahimi reiterated calls for an end to crisis in Syria.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said: “As before, we firmly uphold the thesis that questions about Syria’s future must be decided by the Syrians themselves, without interference from outside or the imposition of prepared recipes for development.”
Brahimi, who is trying to build on the agreement reached in Geneva on June 30, has met three times with senior Russian and U.S. diplomats since early December and met Assad in Damascus.
M.D