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RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks with a Syrian rebel leader in Moscow yesterday.
Following the discussion of a Russian-Iranian peace initiative to end the country’s civil war, Syrian National Coalition (SNC) president Khaled Khoja claimed that “the Russian leadership isn’t clinging to Bashar al-Assad.”
Russia and Iran have both backed President Assad’s government in its four-year struggle to defeat a plethora of rebel forces backed by Nato and the Gulf Arab states.
Mr Khoja reiterated the SNC position that Mr Assad and his ministers could not be part of a proposed transitional government as part of the peace process.
Mr Khoja said Russia’s main concern was Syria’s territorial integrity and avoiding the collapse of state institutions, adding that the SNC was committed to the same goals.