Russia Foreign Minister: Syria Peace Conference Could Be Derailed If US Pushes For No-Fly Zone

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV | ASSOCIATED PRESS | 2 hours, 1 minute ago in World

Russia's foreign minister said Friday that Washington is sending contradictory signals on Syria that could derail an international conference intended to end that country's civil war, warning that U.S. talk about a possible no-fly zone would only encourage the rebels to keep fighting.Sergey Lavrov also criticized demands that Syrian President Bashar Assad step down.

"Not because we like the regime, not because we want the regime to stay, but because it's for the Syrians to decide," Lavrov said in an interview. "And to say you must capitulate and deliver the power to us is just not realistic."

In addition, he dismissed allegations by the U.S., Britain and France that Assad's regime has used chemical weapons.

--CLIP
Putin also warned that if Assad steps down, that could lead to the vacuum of power that would be quickly filled by al-Qaida-connected rebels. "How can we avoid it? There are well-armed, and very aggressive," he said.

Read more: http://www.newser.com/article/da72926o2/russia-foreign-minister-syria-peace-conference-could-be-derailed-if-us-pushes-for-no-fly-zone.html

[John2]

1. The way I see this,

if Assad does step down from pressure from the United States, the rebels and others, You just as well say the rebels won. That also means the terrorists. They were not elected to anything and their leaders are Foreigners and dissidents. General Idris is also a deserter. Should he be given any power in Syria because of this? I think they should have an election, just like they claim in 2014. I also think Assad should be one of the candidates. If the leaders of the opposition think they can win an election in Syria, from the Sunni population alone, then let them run. Idris doesn't even have control over the entire opposition and many of them are not even citizens of Syria. They are just trying to divide the country up.

[David__77]

2. Russia should really consider assisting Syria in stabilizing the situation.

And I'm not referring to intervention on the ground or bombing rebel positions. But I do think Russia could provide anti-terrorist and logistical support for operations, and deploy sufficient forces to the base at Tartus, including anti-aircraft batteries, to help stabilize things and avert air piracy by US/NATO.