Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
to step down, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the BBC during an interview on Friday.
"Russia is not in the regime-change game, and there is absolutely no chance of Moscow telling Al-Assad to stand down", he said.
Lavrov stated that Moscow is against "interference in domestic conflicts," pointing out that Al-Assad himself has no intention of resigning.
"I can only say it is not for us to decide who should lead Syria. It is for the Syrians to decide", Lavrov reiterated.
Russia and China, Al-Assad's staunchest international allies, vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions last year threatening sanctions against the Syrian regime. The latest Russia-China veto deepened an acrimonious battle at the Security Council over who is to blame for the world powers' failure to get international action to halt the two-year Syrian conflict.