MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday there could be no peaceful resolution of the conflict in Syria as long as opponents of President Bashar Al-Assad demand his exit from power and refuse to negotiate with his government. Lavrov's comments at an annual news conference signaled no shift in the position of Russia, which says Assad's exit must not be a precondition for a deal to end 22 months of violence in which more than 60,000 people have been killed. “Everything runs up against the opposition members' obsession with the idea of the overthrow of the Assad regime. As long as this irreconcilable position remains in force, nothing good will happen, armed action will continue, people will die,” Lavrov said. Russia has been Assad's most powerful foreign protector during the violence that started with a crackdown on protests but has escalated into civil war, vetoing three UN Security Council resolution aimed to push him out or pressure him to end bloodshed. Russia flew 77 of its citizens fleeing the Syrian violence to Moscow via Lebanon on Wednesday but Lavrov said the situation in Syria did not require a mass evacuation of Russian citizens. Lavrov took particular aim at the Syria National Coalition — a broad-based group backed by the West founded in Doha last year — for seeking the toppling of Assad as one of its fundamental aims. Over almost two years of conflict that the United Nations estimates has already cost more than 60,000 lives, Russia has cooled on Assad but has vehemently resisted Western pressure to call on him to quit. “Our priority is not reaching a geo-political aim — like the toppling of the Assad regime — but a stabilization of the situation and a rapid end to the bloodshed to save Syrian lives,” said Lavrov. Speaking of large-scale naval exercises Russia is holding in the Black Sea and in the Mediterranean Sea, not far from Syria, Lavrov said the naval presence was a positive factor. “Of course we have no interest in the Mediterranean region becoming even more destabilized. And the presence of our fleet there is undoubtedly a stabilizing factor,” Lavrov said. Rushana Vidova, who left the country with her Syrian husband Ali, said upon arrival at Moscow's Domodedovo airport she is grateful to “Russia and all who helped us.” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the overnight evacuation of Russian citizens from Syria “speaks to the continued deterioration of the security situation, and the violence that Assad is leading against his own people.” Govt rocket kills 6 Syrian activists said a government rocket attack has killed six members of a single family in the north of the country. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees say that the rocket landed in the village of Abu Taltal in Aleppo province after midnight Wednesday. The groups frequently report government bombardment of rebel-dominated regions. The observatory said a father, mother and four children whose ages raged between two and 11 were killed. The LCC said the family name was Hazrouni. — Agencies
