Dear ladies and gentlemen,

It is a pleasure, as always, to be in Cairo on a visit that begins not with a bilateral meeting but with the negotiations with L. Brahimi, the Secretary General of the League of Arab States and the UN and LAS special delegate.

Russia and the LAS have rich history of relations, but it is just the beginning. In due time, we decided to create Russia-LAS Forum on Cooperation at the level of ministers of foreign affairs. Today we agreed to try to hold its first meeting in Moscow by the end of the year. Our agenda covers all the key issues of cooperation, above all, the settlement of numerous conflicts in the region of the LAS responsibility.

According to obvious reasons, the priority attention was paid to Syrian crisis. We are deeply concerned with the events there, the potential negative consequences for the stability of other countries, neighboring Syria and the region as a whole. It bothers us in terms of the processes taking place within the Islamic world.

We agree that the Syrian crisis, as well as any other, shall not have military solution. We shall establish our priorities. If the number one priority is the saving of the people lives, then all whom it depends on, shall make all warring parties in Syria stop the violence, sit down at the negotiating table (as we agreed in Geneva) and begin to coordinate parameters and terms of the transition period.

Exactly such line is drawn by the Russian Federation. Probably Russia is the only participant of the Geneva meeting which works with all parties without exception: with the government and with the various opposition groups. Moreover, we work with them strictly in accordance with the Geneva agreements, convincing all parties to immediately and simultaneously stop the violence and start to form the transitional governing body.

Unfortunately, some other participants of the Geneva meeting departed from their obligations. They do not communicate with the Syrian government and work only with the opposition, and not in favor of its adoption of the Geneva agreements, but encouraging the continuation of military operations till final victory. This is the way to very unpleasant results and we would all like to avoid them. We strongly hope that all those who met in Geneva and reached consensus there, will be able to return to the spirit and letter of this document and we will do our best to support the efforts made by L.Brahimi, the special representative of the UN and the LAS in this direction.

In all acuteness of the Syrian problem we do not want other crisis and conflict situations both new and old to be consigned to oblivion under this pretext. This applies also to the need to more strongly help the new Libyan authorities to establish the stability and control over the entire country. This, of course, applies to the need to prevent the Palestinian issue from being consigned to oblivion, and to the need to execute the decision made and to summon a conference before the end of this year on creation of Middle East zone free of mass destruction weapons.

It cannot be allowed that legal aspirations of the peoples of the Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa region, their pursuit of better life and justice were used to destabilize this region and create the threat of distribution of terrorism, drug traffic and illegal traffic of weapons.

Today we discussed it all and I think that our discussions were very effective.

Question: Destructions and murders still take place in Syria. Is it possible to find the handling of the crisis, taking into account that so many parties participate in its settlement?

S.V.Lavrov: We agreed in Geneva what to do: all the external players shall tell those who carry the war in Syria the same. Russia does this: tells the government and all opposition groups about it. Some other participants of the “Action Group” on Syria that was declared in Geneva, both western and some of the region, tell the opposition: “Keep on making war! This is the right cause, you will win”.

Make conclusions yourself whose position creates a threat of new human losses.

Question: Does Russia agree to adopt the resolution in UN Security Council with the requirement to stop the fire?

S.V. Lavrov: There is no need for resolution in order to fulfill the Geneva agreements fairly. All we need is what I have said – that everyone asks the warring persons to stop the violence.

Resolution, discussed by our western partners and some other colleagues, is planned only with one purpose – to aggravate the situation and create the conditions for the regime change. If the main priority is the regime change, than there will be more bloodshed. It does not depend on Russia.

If the priority is the saving of lives, no resolution is needed. We did not try to implement the Geneva agreements yet, but the USA, EU, LAS, Turkey, Russia, China and the UN that participated there, are able to do it. But somehow, everyone who signed the Geneva communique says different things. Russia keeps on telling the conflict parties: “Stop shooting and sit down at the negotiating table”. Some other declare: “Keep on shooting, the regime will be overthrown – we promise”.

That is all actually. No resolution can help in this situation.

Sergey Lavrov