GENEVA — International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said after talks here with senior US and Russian officials Sunday that they had agreed it was still possible to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria. “The meeting was constructive and held in a spirit of cooperation. It explored avenues to move forward a peaceful process and mobilize greater international action in favor of a political solution to the Syrian crisis,” Brahimi said in a statement issued after all-day closed-door talks. Brahimi, joint special representative of the United Nations and Arab League, met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and US Undersecretary of State William Burns at an undisclosed location in the Swiss city. It followed his talks this week with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “All three parties re-affirmed their common assessment that the situation in Syria was bad and getting worse. They stressed that a political process to end the crisis in Syria was necessary and still possible,” Brahimi said. They agreed a political solution would be based on core elements of the final statement issued by major and regional powers after their Geneva meeting last June 30 under the chairmanship of former mediator Kofi Annan, he said. Meanwhile, Lavrov said Russia was not holding any talks on the future of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, dismissing speculation that it is preparing for its ally's potential exit from power. The United States and its NATO allies have pressed for Assad's departure as part of efforts to end the bloodshed in Syria, but Russia and China have blocked action against the Syrian leader at the UN Security Council. Lavrov held talks on Syria with Clinton and Brahimi Thursday, but Lavrov dismissed suggestions that this meant Moscow had changed its stance. “We are not holding any talks on the fate of Assad,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted Lavrov as saying during a meeting Sunday. “All attempts to present the situation differently are rather shady, even for the diplomacy of those countries that are known for striving to distort facts in their own favor.” He said the priority was to end the fighting in Syria, not to discuss the fate of one man. “Our position on Syria is well-known,” he said. Reiterating the line that Russian officials have used repeatedly, he said: “Moscow does not stick to Assad or to some other figure on the Syrian political scene.” On the ground, the Syrian army clashed with rebels on the Damascus outskirts and in the southern Qadam neighborhood of the capital as it pressed its bombardment of rebel-held towns, a watchdog said. At least one rebel fighter was killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. — Agencies
