Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Russia will not allow repetition of the Libyan scenario in Syria, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying on Sunday.

"We'll not allow the Libyan experience to be reproduced in Syria. Unfortunately our Western partners have departed from the Geneva accords and are seeking the departure of [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad," Lavrov said, adding that Russia was not clinging to any individual leaders in Syria.

Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed UN resolution on Syria on July 19 over fears that it would lead to foreign military intervention in the Middle East country.

The resolution was tied to Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which would have provided for the use of force to put an end to the rapidly escalating conflict.

Russia says it has no special interest in seeing Assad remain in power, but that the "Syrian people" should decide his fate.

A number of Western countries have been trying to persuade Moscow to support a resolution effectively authorizing a military operation, but Russia has repeatedly insisted that the Western drive for a stronger crackdown on Syria is preparation for a "Libyan scenario."

In Libya, rebels ousted and killed long-standing dictator Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011 after a months-long military standoff in which they received assistance from NATO forces. Russia did not use its veto power in the UN Security Council to block the intervention in Libya that was reportedly started under the pretext of protecting civilians there.

Lavrov also said Russia was not holding any talks on the fate of embattled Assad.

Meanwhile, U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi held talks with senior Russian and United States officials on Sunday at which they stated that a political solution to end the crisis is still possible, the UN website reported.

The meeting in Geneva between Brahimi, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns was "constructive and held in the spirit of cooperation," said a statement issued by Joint Special Representative Brahimi.

"It explored avenues to move forward a peaceful process and mobilize greater international action in favor of a political solution to the Syrian crisis," it added.

"All three parties reaffirmed their common assessment that the situation in Syria was bad and getting worse. They stressed that a political process to end the crisis in Syria was necessary and still possible," the statement said.

Sunday's meeting followed the talks on Syria held Thursday between Lavrov, Brahimi and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Dublin.

Participants of the Geneva meeting agreed that a political solution would be based on the core elements of the communiqué issued by the Action Group that met in Geneva on June 30, and agreed to meet again in the near future.

The communiqué called for the establishment of a transitional governing body, with full executive powers and made up by members of the present government and the opposition and other groups, as part of important agreed principles and guidelines for a Syrian-led political transition.

The Action Group is made up of the Secretaries-General of the UN and the Arab League; the Foreign Ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the US - as well as the Turkish Foreign Minister; the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; and the Foreign Ministers of Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar, in their respective roles related to the Arab League.

Moreover, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stated that he is fed up with the impotence of the international community in ending the 20-month Syrian crisis, calling on Security Council member countries to display a unified position to stop the violence in Syria, Turkey's Todays Zaman newspaper reported on Sunday.

Ban Ki-moon arrived in Turkey last Friday as part of his regional tour regarding the Syrian crisis. The UN chief was hosted by President Abdullah Gul the following day. On Friday, he traveled to İslahiye, a district of Gaziantep province, where he visited Syrian refugees. Later, he held a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu after a private talk with the minister on the Syrian crisis, as well as other regional issues such as Palestine, Somalia and Cyprus.

"I may say in the name of all the people who are on the side of democracy and freedom, we are fed up with this violence [in Syria] and the impotency of the international community in bringing peace to the Syrian people. Now is the time for the international community, in particular, UN Security Council members, to show unity and more effort [with regard to the resolution of the Syrian crisis]," the UN chief said, adding that such unity will force President Assad to seek an agreement to end the violence.

"Since the UN has unfortunately failed to display a decisive stance on Syria, since a united position has not emerged at the UN Security Council, it has not been possible to prevent the Syrian crisis from deepening," Davutoglu told the same conference.

Turkish President Gul, for his part, called on the international community to increase their efforts to help the Syrians fleeing violence in their country and said the UN should play an "effective and leading role" in efforts to end the Syrian crisis.

The Middle Eastern country has been wracked by violence, with at least 20,000 people, mostly civilians, killed since the uprising against President Assad began some 21 months ago. The violence has spawned more than 465,000 refugees, while more than 2.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to UN estimates.