Lavrov: Iran to Break Nuclear Deadlock, Al-Assad Represents Syrian Majority
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Friday "all the participants in the negotiations due to start on Friday on Iran's nuclear file to resort to diplomacy to gradually remove concerns over this file."
He pointed out that "the Russian delegation will take part in the meeting with the ultimate goal is to remove concerns over the peacefulness of the Iranian nuclear program and exercise the arts of diplomacy to coordinate the structure and the process towards reaching this goal."
"Iran will propose new initiatives to ensure international community about the transparency and peaceful goals of its nuclear activities; Iran new proposals can break current deadlock in the nuclear talks," Lavrov continued
On the Syrian file, Lavrov declared that "the foreign ministers of G8 member countries welcomed the ceasefire in Syria."
Lavrov told the journalists accompanying him on his way back to Moscow that "the G8 foreign ministers agreed to maintain the situation and go ahead."
ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Lavrov as confirming that "Damascus has taken sufficient positive steps towards the plan of the UN envoy to it Kofi Annan."
He further declared his country's support to sending international monitors to Syria as soon as possible," adding that "Moscow spares no efforts to make Annan's mission a success."
"The focus at this time should be placed on ensuring the implementation of Annan's plan to resolve the crisis in Syria," he stated adding that "the priority now is for all the parties to abide by the ceasefire."
He added that "Russia considers the UN envoy's plan as very realistic and is working to make it a success."
"Moscow is with sending international monitors to Syria as soon as possible as this is a part of Annan's plan which provides for a ceasefire with effective international supervision," he asserted.
Lavrov also revealed that he discussed with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Washington the structure and number of the monitors to be sent to Syria to prevent any provocation.
The top diplomat reiterated his call upon all the Syrians to sit around the dialogue table, pointing out that "the Syrian leadership has already expressed its readiness to do so."
He noted that Russia has been meeting representatives of the opposition inside and outside Syria to try to influence them.
"However, it is clear that some of our partners in the international arena have been saying different things to the opposition and pushing it towards intransigence," added Lavrov, considering such thing as wrong and contradicts all statements issued to settle the crisis, end violence and move to dialogue."
"President Bashar al-Assad is not in power because Russia and China want him to be, but because he represents the majority of the Syrian people, and to say that an opposition trend is the legitimate representative of the Syrian people is an exaggeration," said Lavrov, describing the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statements towards the Russian stance towards the Syrian leadership as "emotional."
Source: News agencies, Edited by moqawama.org
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