Russia Says Assad Could Go in Syria Settlement
Russia said on Tuesday it was prepared to see Syrian President Bashar Assad leave power in a negotiated solution to 15 months of bloodshed that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said a day after meeting mediator Kofi Annan in Geneva that Russia would back any peaceful settlement to the crisis as long as it did not involve the use of outside force.
"We have never said or insisted that Assad necessarily had to remain in power at the end of the political process," Gatilov told the ITAR-TASS news agency in Switzerland.
"This issue has to be settled by the Syrians themselves."
The comments represent one of Russia's most explicit declarations of a position first signaled by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a day after a February 7 meeting in Damascus with Assad.
Lavrov at the time refused to explicitly back Assad and said the leadership structure of Moscow's Soviet-era ally "should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves."
Russia has been facing mounting pressure to back Assad's departure as a first step in a settlement that would see his inner circle assume command on an interim basis.
The option is modeled on the recent transition in Yemen and has been backed by the U.S. administration.
The New York Times has reported that U.S. President Barack Obama plans to raise the option when he meets Vladimir Putin for the first time since his May return to the Russian presidency at next month's G20 summit in Mexico.
Gatilov said the Yemeni model could only be relevant if the rebels agreed to lay down their arms and sit down for talks.
"When we discuss applying the Yemeni model to the situation in Syria, we have to keep in mind that unfortunately, there is no desire from the opposition to engage in any political talks with the government," Gatilov said.
"It would be good to... see a political will from both sides that would allow us to move toward a settlement," he added.
"And in that case, it would probably be appropriate to talk about the Yemeni model."
Gatilov's comments came as another top Russian official announced that a U.S. delegation headed by Washington's Syria crisis pointman Frederic Hof would be traveling to Moscow later this week.
Source: Agence France Presse
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