Russia says it doesn’t mind if Assad stays or steps down

The general said Iran will keep backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has stood against Israel.

Asked whether it was crucial for Moscow that Assad stays, Maria Zakharov said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station: “Absolutely not, we’ve never said that”.

Moscow’s goal was not to support Assad, but to save the Syrian state and defeat terrorist groups, a Russian analyst said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet the UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura in Moscow on Wednesday (local time) as diplomats try to keep up a push aimed at ending the bloody war.

The Observatory said government troops shelled the rebel-held Damascus suburbs of Douma and Daraya.

A senior Syrian official rejected Tuesday the idea of a “transitional period” sought by Western states that want President Bashar Assad removed from power, saying during a visit to Iran that an expanded government was being discussed.

“Now we are in contact with the representatives of different opposition groups to get them to come to Moscow”.

“I can confirm that Russia’s position on resolving the Syrian (crisis) has not changed”, she was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.

A frame grab taken from footage released by Russia’s Defence Ministry on October 9, 2015, shows a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber dropping a bomb in the air over Syria.

The SNC has been accused of slipping into virtual irrelevance on the battlefield in Syria as Islamist and Kurdish groups have grown stronger.

Russian Federation earlier this year hosted two meetings with government representatives and members of the political opposition, which did not include the Syrian National Coalition, the main Western-backed political opposition group. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the journalist was killed in shelling of the government-held Dahiyat al-Assad neighborhood, which has been frequently targeted by rebel attacks.

Syria’s skies are becoming increasingly crowded as Russian Federation and a U.S.-led coalition carry out separate air campaigns.

The SDF said on Saturday that it had begun its first offensive since announcing the anti-ISIL alliance last month in Hassakeh.