Local Editor

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has ruled out any peace plan for Syria that calls on President Bashar al-Assad to step down and go into exile.

"A scheme according to which President Assad should leave somewhere before something happens in terms of a cessation of violence and a political process, this scheme does not work simply from the very start," the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying on Thursday.
He said " We expressed our position that we cannot accept a policy which would aim at changing regimes from the outside. This has been our position all along. We also cannot prejudge for the Syrians what the outcome of the political dialogue would be."
Lavrov reiterated his country's call for a political dialogue among all Syrians without preconditions or foreign dictates to solve the crisis in Syria. Lavrov warned that any military intervention in Syria will lead to a catastrophe in the region, stressing that Moscow is committed to implementing its military deals with Syria, especially in relation to air defense, to repel any foreign intervention.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011, with both the government and armed groups accuse each other of intensifying the violence.
Over the past weeks, the anti-Syria Western governments have been calling for the overthrow of the Assad government.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on June 20, "No one is entitled to decide for other nations who should be in power and who should not."
"A change of power, if it occurs -- and it could only occur by constitutional means -- should result in peace and stop the bloodshed," he stated at a press conference in after the G20 summit in Mexico.Meanwhile, a New York Times report has confirmed CIA agents operating in southern Turkey are secretly helping anti-government armed groups.

The agents are also helping the anti-Syria governments decide which gangs inside the Arab country will "receive arms to fight the Syrian government."
The weaponry -- including automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and anti-tank weapons -- is being transported mostly across the Turkish border, in a move funded by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the report revealed.

Source: News Agencies, edited by moqawama.org