Russia will not tell Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down to end the civil war and make way for a political transition, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.
The remarks were a reiteration of Moscow's position that Mr Assad's exit must not be a precondition for a negotiated solution to the two-year conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people.
Asked whether there was a chance Russia would tell Mr Assad he should step down for the sake of a peace agreement, Mr Lavrov replied: "Absolutely not. You know that we're not in the regime-change game."
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