Russia is continuing to set the pace of international efforts to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis and fight Islamic State more effectively in the wake of the Paris killings by urging an end to calls that Bashar al-Assad should step down.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minster, warned on Wednesday that it was unacceptable to insist on the president’s departure, as Syrian rebels of all hues and their western and Arab supporters have been demanding. This central and polarising issue was sidestepped on Saturday during talks in Vienna which set out a timetable for peace talks and ceasefire.
“It seems to me there are no longer any doubts that it is simply unacceptable to put forward any pre-conditions for joining forces in the fight against terror,” Lavrov told reporters after meeting his Lebanese counterpart, Gebran Bassil, in Moscow. He said he had detected a change in the west’s position since the Paris atrocities and the Isis bombing of a Russian passenger plane over Egypt on 31 October.
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