In a joint press conference with his Lebanese counterpart, Gebran Bassil, Lavrov said that in the context of the Syrian crisis, the top priority must be to mobilize a broad front to counteract the terrorist threat, above all that of the ISIL.
At the end of talks with Bassil here, Lavrov evoked the steps agreed during a meeting of the International Syria Support Group in Vienna on Nov.14, and said that, based on that, an Syrian internal political process must be promoted, in parallel to the military actions against ISIL and other terrorist groups.
He said that during the meeting, Moscow and Beirut promoted a weighed, balanced approach based on the need to respect the Syrian people's right to determine its own destiny.
Lavrov made clear that during the meetings in Vienna no understanding was reached that prevented current President Bashar Al Assad from being part of a future political solution in Syria.
"No agreement was reached preventing Al Assad's involvement in a certain phase of the political process," he told journalists.
He expressed satisfaction that in the final document after the two meetings in Vienna (in Oct.30 and Nov.14) that position of respect to the Syrians self-determination prevailed.
Lavrov added that he and Bassil discussed the situation from the point of view of the struggle against terrorism in a broadest sense, not only in relation to Syria.
As he evoked the speech given by President Vladimir Putin in the 70th period of sessions of the UN General Assembly, Lavrov insisted that the Security Council must give priority to a solid international front to fight terrorism in order to mobilize a global coalition to face "this tough common challenge."
hr/rma/ro/jpm
PL-54/MNA
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