Russia Says Assad Could Go in Syria Settlement
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
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.
05 June 2012, 19:36
14
FT....the countdown has begun, so don't worry about the past 15 months...your boytoy Bashar is on is way out. All that needs to be determined, is HOW he will leave this earth, not WHEN. I know you will be a sad moron when that happens, but we cannot save you from your idiotic way of thinking or your sadness. Good riddance...also, once he is gone, hopefully you will no longer post your stupid, ridiculous, lying comments on this forum, as well. You are embarrassing yourself, but, then again, idiots like you, have no shame.
05 June 2012, 19:38
16
and it's been 15 months since you and your lunatic masters Aoun and Nasralaat have been saying that "it'll be over tomrorow"..
05 June 2012, 20:34
13
still so smart ... keep it that way , and you seem still proud to support a women and children killing regime, no wonder, you are FPM....
05 June 2012, 18:31
15
Bashar Assad and his band of merry men, are now "toast"...yalla...get the ropes ready for him, his family and his cowardly friends and then let's not forget all those shabiha on steroids, as they need extra heavy rope to hang them, as well....
05 June 2012, 20:22
31
Agence France Presse is hoping that Napoleon will return. The Russian statement is merely that Assad does not have a guaranteed job. Can that be said for the warlords in Lebanon?
05 June 2012, 20:23
01
Even Russia realizing that Assad will go one way or another: Either exile, arrest or being shot.
05 June 2012, 21:06
01
It would be progressive if all parties adopted the concept of Westphalian nation-state concepts of sovereignty. This is the basis of the international system, at least in the West. In the Middle East, religious authorities assume the right to meddle across national boundaries. So that the Saudis assume the right to protect Sunnis where ever the live and Iranians assume the right to promote the rights of Shia regardless of where the Shiites live.
In the West, the Catholic Church from Rome assumed this duty and the treaty of Westphalia got the church out of this business. Islam needs to be put in its proper role in the same way.
05 June 2012, 21:10
03
Instead what we get is the Assad Regime which freely meddles in its neighbor's affairs completely disregarding the concept of national borders and the sovereign rights of its neighbors (Iraq and Lebanon). But when the Assad Regime finds itself in distress, it retreats behind the concept of national sovereignty as does its principle defender, Russia.
Even Nasrallah has resorted to Westphalian statements as he seeks to justify his positions, but Nasrallah is the principle benefactor of ignorence of concepts of nation-state sovereignty rights.
It is this unprincipled behavior of Assad and Hezbollah that cause them to be in the current circumstance in which they find themselves.
If Assad goes, it will be by the hand of the Syrian people.
For Hezbollah to recede in Lebanon, it will be by the hand of the Lebanese.
05 June 2012, 21:27
00
perhaps assad isn't the real power player in his own regime, and russia is holding on to his regime... not to him.
06 June 2012, 09:30
13
"because i made fun of peace's nostradamic accuracy.your pb FT and that of M8 is that you have been denying that people in syria are revolting for 15 months! every week we heard you say that nothing was going on, or that by next week everything will be over, or that bashar has everything in control...despite tanks helicopters,heavy machine guns your friends still haven t crushed anything!
despite the killings and the help of your friends from iran, the courage of syrian got the better of you and you are sh... in your pants at the idea of losing your privileges...
so mock as much as you want but the funny ones are M8 who have been saying for months that nothing was going on in syria!!! hahaha!
