Istanbul, SANA –Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday affirmed the need for turning to political settlement for the crisis in Syria as soon as possible.
Speaking at a joint press conference with President of the Turkish regime Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress in Istanbul, Putin said that both sides spent a lot of time discussing regional issues, particularly the situation in Syria, adding” In Russia, we think that the switch to a political settlement must happen as soon as possible. We suppose that everybody, who wants peace, should support this proposal.”
He noted that the two sides agreed to do everything to implement the proposal of UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura on getting Jabhat al-Nusra gunmen out from eastern Aleppo, hoping that the delivery of humanitarian aid to Aleppo would be a main topic in the scheduled Saturday’s talks in Switzerland.
The Russian president added that his country has submitted a proposal to the American side which provides for the withdrawal of the Syrian armed forces and the armed groups from Castillo road but the US and its partners refused.
Lavrov: Russia ready to cooperate with US to settle crisis in Syria
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also stressed that Russia is ready to cooperate with the Washington to settle the crisis in Syria through whatever formula.
In a press statement following his participation in meeting held between Russian President Putin and Erdogan, Lavrov said that the matter of resuming the Russian-US cooperation on Syria remains entirely up to Washington.
On September 9th, Russia and the US reached an agreement on Syria, the agreement provides for cessation of hostilities, serious and joint efforts to combat terrorism and delivery of humanitarian aid.
R.Raslan/Mazen