Russia denies ＂privately setting＂ Bashar’s future with the United States.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a press conference on April 1, denouncing the media reports that the United States and Russia reached a consensus on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s stay in private.
Bashar recently accepted an exclusive interview with the Russian media on issues such as the presidential election and the ceasefire in Syria. He said that if the Syrian people want to hold the presidential election in advance, he himself has no objection.
["Dirty" Report]
Al-Hayat, an Arabic newspaper headquartered in London, England, reported on March 31st that US Secretary of State John Kerry "ventilated" with several Arab countries, saying that the United States and Russia had reached a consensus on the Syrian peace process, including Bashar’s departure from Syria for other countries at a certain stage in the process.
In response, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov denounced the report as "distorting the facts" at a news conference on the 1st, saying that "only the Syrian people can decide all issues concerning the future of Syria".
Russian Presidential Press Secretary dmitry Peskov also said on the same day: "Russia is different from other countries and will not discuss the sovereignty of third countries, whether through diplomatic channels or other channels."
The United States has not yet responded to the contents of the report in Al-Hayat.
On the Syrian issue, the United States and Russia have many differences. Russia supports the Syrian government, while the United States believes that Bashar should step down. On March 24th, Kerry held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov in Moscow, during which Kerry once again called on Russia to exert influence on Bashar to make the Syrian peace talks a success.
[Early election? 】
Today’s Russian news agency reported on March 31 that Bashar said in an exclusive interview with this Russian media recently that if the Syrian people want to hold the presidential election in advance, he himself has no objection.
Bashar said that early presidential elections have not been proposed as part of the political process. Whether to hold the presidential election in advance needs to comply with the wishes of the Syrian people, and at the same time, citizens should vote directly for the president, not through parliament.
Bashar won re-election in June 2014, and his term was originally scheduled to end at the end of 2021.
On March 24th, the latest round of Geneva peace talks on Syria ended, and the Syrian government and the opposition High Negotiating Committee reached a consensus on 12 principles.
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, later said that the two sides had serious differences in their understanding of the core issue of "political transition". The Syrian government believes that "political transition" is a transition from the current constitution to a new constitution, and from the current government to a new government with opposition participation; However, the Syrian opposition advocates that "political transition" means that Bashar will step down.
Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman, said earlier that a future Syrian government with Bashar al-Assad’s participation would "not work". (Du Fu Xinhua News Agency special feature)
