President Bashar Al-Assad is the “guarantor of the security…”, Minister Lavrov

MOSCOW, (ST)_ President Bashar Al-Assad is the “guarantor of the security of national minorities, among them Christians, who have been living in Syria for centuries. By the most conservative estimates, our Western partners quote in confidential contacts, President al-Assad still enjoys support of at least a third of citizens as a man who vowed to prevent Syria’s transformation into a state where minorities will be simply unable to live and exist.”

Russian Foreign Minister, sergei Lavrov to the Russian Rossiiskaya Gazeta, October 22, 2012.