Russia urged to put heat on Syrian govt

The Syrian parliamentary opposition calls on Moscow to put pressure on the President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in order to settle the ongoing conflict in the Arab Republic.

Russia plays a “major role” in resolving the Syrian crisis, believes the head of the parliamentary opposition delegation to Moscow, Fateh Muhammad Jamus. “Using its influence in international organizations, Russia can counter external interference (into the conflict),” he told a news conference on Wednesday. “Your country can provide a Syrian future.”The West uses different approaches in its attempts to influence the situation: it supplies weapons to armed groups, notes Fateh Jamus, a member of the Coalition of Forces for Peaceful Changes. The opposition politician blamed the Syrian leadership for the situation. He insists the government should be overthrown, but in a nonviolent way.  “We consider the [Assad] regime dictatorial and violent towards its own people,” he said. He admitted though that other sides involved in the conflict are also responsible for what is happening. Even though the situation in the country “is very fragile,” the entire Syrian society opposes external interference, Jamus stressed. The lawmaker also noted that the majority of the population supports neither the government nor the opposition that fights against it. “Initially, millions of people supported the regime. Now the situation has changed and about 60 per cent of people are against [both conflicting sides]. They stand for peace and security,” Fateh Jamus said. Russia has repeatedly stressed that it supports neither of the sides of the Syrian conflict and that only the Syrian people can decide on their future. Speaking earlier to RT, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow “cannot accept the policy which would be aimed at changing regimes from outside.” “We strongly support the political dialogue and the efforts to stop the violence,” he stressed.  President Vladimir Putin warned that if the Assad government is overthrown, the civil war in Syria may see no end. If the Syrian authorities are displaced, “they will simply swap places with the current opposition and this will cause a civil war that would go on for no one knows how long,” he said back in July. Moscow insists both parties of the conflict should take part in the settlement and is strongly opposed to a foreign intervention.