Vienna talks on Syria should not boil down to Assad’s fate - Lavrov

YEREVAN, November 9. /TASS/. The attempts to reduce talks on Syria in Vienna to demands for the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad lead us astray from reaching the settlement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday. "As a practical step, without which one can hardly count on the efficiency of the next meeting [in Vienna], we reached an agreement on the need to agree who should be considered terrorists and secondly, who represents the opposition," he said. "To a certain extent, our next meeting is facing a pragmatic task - to come to an agreement on the two lists," the Russian minister said. "But, on the other hand, its simplicity is deceptive, since some of our partners are trying to wiggle out of specific work and boil down the whole affair to abstract calls for Assad’s resignation, after which all the issues will be resolved by themselves." Lavrov noted that "this is a simplified approach, it leads us astray from the work, which may bring results." Read more