MONTREUX, Switzerland. Jan 23 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted on Wednesday that the Geneva communique must not be interpreted as a warrant to remove the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.
"We stressed the need to strictly follow the provisions of the Geneva communique. That is the essence and basis of the Russian-American initiative for Geneva II. They have cautioned against attempts at the unilateral interpretation of the Geneva communique in one way or another," Lavrov told reporters after the first day of the Geneva II conference,
"Our counterparts in Europe … and in the United States, and, of course, the [Syrian] opposition are tempted to interpret the Geneva communique purely in the context of a change of regime," he said.