Aggression on Syria pushed back political settlement efforts

In a telephone conversation with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian on Friday , Lavrov stressed that the illegal strikes on the Syrian territory on April 14 before the arrival of OPCW inspectors have pushed back the progress in the Syrian settlement reached through serious effort in Astana and Sochi.

Lavrov stressed that Russia is still open for dialogue with all partners in the interests of fair settlement of the crisis on the basis acceptable for all Syrian parties and in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254 .

The Russian Foreign Ministry statement said that Lavrov and Le Drian discussed in detail the development of the situation in Syria after the tripartite US-British-French aggression.

On Friday, in a joint press conference following the meeting of foreign ministers of the Astana process guarantor states, the Russian Foreign Minister said that the US-British-French tripartite aggression on Syria caused a setback in the efforts to advance the political process in the country.

SANA/MNA