Lavrov Pins No Special Hopes on Meeting in Lausanne on Syria

YEREVAN- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said he pins no special hopes on Saturday’s meeting on Syria in Lausanne.

“I have no special expectations,” he told the media in reply to a question from TASS. “We would like to work in a concrete way and to see first to what degree our partners are prepared to comply with UN Security Council resolutions.”

However, Russia will propose concrete moves to implement UN Security Council resolutions on Syria and the earlier approved agreements, according to Itar Tass.

“We will offer concrete moves which are necessary to see these resolutions (of the UN Security Council) implemented, to have Russian-American agreements implemented,” the top diplomat said.

 The Russian foreign minister has noted that no reciprocal steps are being made by Western partners to settle the crisis in Syria.

“We haven’t seen any (such steps),” the minister said.

The diplomat noted he hoped that life would force the West to “look at facts” to implement the agreements on Syria. 

Speculations about ‘ceasefire’ in Aleppo

Speculations about the cessation of hostilities in Aleppo are nothing but an attempt to inconspicuously whitewash Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorists and to “retouch” the situation in Syria, according to Lavrov.

“All speculations to the effect that it is most important to terminate combat operations in Aleppo are an attempt to ‘retouch’ the situation and to inconspicuously whitewash al-Nusra and those who collaborate with it,” Lavrov said.

He added al-Nusra was not alone and many other groups that positioned themselves as moderate were beginning to merge with al-Nusra and refusing to join the agreement on the cessation of hostilities.

This is the root cause of the problem, he said.

The Russian diplomat described the current situation in Syria as a difficult one. He promised that at Saturday’s talks in Lausanne Russia’s stance would be “honest and clean.”

He remarked that the policy in favor of a political dialogue and for an end to violence in Syria was not only Russian.

“It is a decision of the whole international community, consecrated by the UN Security Council,” he said.

H.M