Russia, Bahrain favor people’s right to decide their own fate, says Lavrov

SOCHI, February 8. /TASS/. Russia and Bahrain come out in favor of peaceful settlement of all conflicts in the Middle East region and assert people’s right to decide their own destiny, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after summit talks of President Vladimir Putin and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. "The heads of state discussed cooperation on international affairs, on regional issues and discussed the situation unfolding in the Middle East and in the north of Africa," the minister said. The diplomat said the common stance of the two countries was that "first of all priorities for the world community must be determined, namely irreconcilable fight against terrorism, peaceful settlement of conflict situations, inadmissibility of actions that leads to disintegration of states". With this in view, the two leaders exchanged opinions on developments in Syria, Lavrov said. He said the sides "confirmed our common support for action of the international community on the basis of full and strict implementation of resolution 2254 of the UN Security Council, including within the context of a need to maintain an inclusive inter-Syrian dialog aimed at seeing that the Syrian people themselves decide the fate of their country". "We will be offering such support through the International Syria Support Group that will meet for a next session in Munich on February 11," he said. Lavrov said Russia and Bahrain "want to see Syria a stable country in which the foundations of a secular state are fixed, the country which ensures its territorial integrity, the country in which the rights of all without exception citizens are guaranteed". "These are the principles that we see underlining for the settlement of other conflicts in the region: those in Libya and Yemen, as well as the situation around Iraq, Afghanistan". "We pay particular attention to a need to boost effort of the global community towards contribution to the Palestinian-Israeli settlement on a just international basis," he said. "We proceed from the fact that the peoples must themselves choose their destiny, while support and assistance from the international community must be precise, adequate and must fully take into account traditions and history of that rich region," the foreign minister said. Read more