Al-Assad should remain in office until Syria's future political order agreed upon - Medvedev
MOSCOW. Feb 14 (Interfax) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should participate in all processes taking place in his country, and should remain in office until the future political order of Syria is agreed upon, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said.
"He should remain in office until the future political order is agreed upon, as well as how the country is to be governed. This is Russia's take on this issue," Medvedev said in an interview with the Euronews television station.
The Russian prime minister also noted that al-Assad "should take part in all the procedures and processes, and it should be up to the Syrian people to decide his destiny."
"He fully understands that. During his visit to Moscow, he said that if the people do not support him, he will naturally step down," Medvedev said.
Moscow believes "that there is currently no other legitimate authority in Syria apart from Bashar al-Assad," Medvedev said.
"He is the incumbent president, whether anyone likes it or not. Taking him out of this equation would lead to chaos. We have seen that on numerous occasions in the Middle East, when countries simply fell apart, as it happened with Libya, for example," the Russian prime minister said.