Lavrov, Damascus minister meet over proposed conference on Syria
MOSCOW. May 22 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has met with Syrian First Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad to discuss preparations for an international conference on Syria.
"We value the constructive reaction of the Syrian leadership to this proposal, and we consider it important that your visit will make it possible to discuss specific details that are inevitably arising in connection with the implementation of this idea," Lavrov said before talks with Mekdad.
"The situation calls for an immediate end to fighting and for the start of a political dialogue. That is the reason for the proposal for organizing an international conference on Syria that Russia and the United States have put forward. The purpose of that event, as we formulate it, is that the Syrians should themselves, without interference from the outside, reach an agreement on what they want in their country for the future," Lavrov said.