LONDON. March 14 (Interfax) - Arms supplies to Syrian opposition by foreign countries run against international law, while it is the Syrian people who should decide on the future of the incumbent President Bashar Assad, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"As to a possibility of supplying arms to the opposition, I understand that the international law prohibits that. Arms supplies to the opposition will be a violation of international law. We can recall the example of Libya, when the [UN] Security Council imposed embargo on arms deliveries to both sides of the conflict, but such deliveries to the opposition openly continued," Lavrov told a news conference in London in the wake of the 2+2 talks.
Lavrov also stressed: "It is the Syrian people who should decide on the future of Bashar Assad."
He also called on Russia's Western partners to assist in establishing a group within the opposition that will negotiate with the Syrian authorities.
"If the real goal is to stop violence in the country, then one needs to discard any preconditions," Lavrov said.
The West views the regime change in Syria and the ousting of Bashar Assad as a precondition for the political transition.