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Russia Says Syria's Assad Won't Resign
(AP-Wall Street Journal) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "has repeatedly said publicly and privately, including in his meeting with [UN envoy] Lakhdar Brahimi in Damascus not long ago, that he does not intend to leave for anywhere, that he will stay to the end in his post, that he will, as he expressed it, defend the Syrian people, Syrian sovereignty and so forth....There's no possibility to change this position." Lavrov said Russia would continue to oppose any UN resolution for international sanctions against Assad or foreign intervention in Syria. While he again emphasized that Russia "isn't holding on to Bashar Assad," he added that Moscow continues to believe the opposition demand for his resignation as a precondition for peace talks is "counterproductive." Georgy Mirsky, a leading Mideast expert with the Institute for World Economy and International Relations in Moscow, said that President Putin's stand on Syria is rooted in fear that joining international calls for Assad's resignation "would look like an inadmissible concession to America, a virtual surrender." He said that Putin is resigned to Assad's eventual collapse and the loss of any Russian influence in a future Syria, but by firmly opposing international sanctions, Putin is able to tell his domestic audience that Russia has defended its ally until the end against overwhelming odds.