One may talk about adjustment of U.S. stance on Assad - Lavrov

UNITED NATIONS, October 1. /TASS/. One may talk about some adjustment of the stance of Western countries, in particular the United States, on Syria and its president, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday following meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. "If you take their statements two or three years ago, when it was publicly said that Assad had lost all his legitimacy, when the so-called National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces was recognized as the sole representative of the Syrian people, of course, a huge distance has been covered towards the statements which we now hear from Washington and London that no one demands Assad’s immediate resignation, that he may launch a political process and that there should be some clarity at the end of this process," Lavrov said. "To a certain extent, this is, probably, the adjustment of the stance," the minister noted. "I think life has convinced them that it is unrealistic to demand in terms of an ultimatum the president’s resignation in a situation where there is such a crisis in the country, it is necessary to negotiate." Read more