Russia’s foreign minister has declared in Damascus that the Syrian government is committed to ending the country’s violence.
Sergei Lavrov made the remark after holding talks on Tuesday in the Syrian capital with President Bashar al-Assad.
However, in a sign that other countries were not so confident, Gulf Arab states joined France and Italy in withdrawing their ambassadors from Damascus.
And in the central Syrian city of Homs, the military continued its assault on opposition fighters. Witnesses said tanks and snipers began firing on residential areas from dawn for a fifth straight day.
Dozens of people have been killed in the ongoing military assault, according to activists.
Lavrov’s visit
Lavrov’s visit to Damascus comes three days after Russia and China vetoed any UN-backed measures against the Assad government over its crackdown on the 11-month uprising.
After holding what he called a “very useful meeting”, Lavrov described Assad as “fully committed” to ending the bloodshed.
“We [Russia] confirmed our readiness to act for a rapid solution to the crisis based on the plan put forward by the Arab League,” Lavrov said.
He said Russia intends to work towards a solution based on an Arab League plan that it had previously criticised.
Russsian news agencies quoted Lavrov as saying Syria also is ready to see an enlarged Arab League mission in the country.
Earlier in the day, Syrian state television showed large crowds greeting Lavrov as his convoy drove to Damascus from the airport.
Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said that though expectations of any impact of the visit on the Assad government were low, Lavrov may be looking to engage with the Syrian opposition as well as the nation’s leadership.
In engaging with the opposition, Lavrov may be in search of moderates within the movement, he said.
The presence of moderates within the opposition could be important, because what the Russians - who have had a long relationship of trade and arms sales with Syria – want to avoid is “a catastrophic collapse as we’ve seen in Libya”, our correspondent said.
Sergei Srokan, a Russian political analyst said, in finding the moderates in the opposition, Lavrov could show that “all those calling for President Assad to immediately step down don’t represent even the whole of the Syrian opposition”.
You must log in to post a comment.