What Happened During Lavrov-Kerry Meeting?

Nidal Hmedeh - Paris

There is a calm war tinted with doubt and suspiciousness between Russia's Vladimir Putin and the US's Barack Obama, despite attempts of embellishing the bilateral relationships to the international poles.

"Syria is a point of great difference between the two countries, but it is not the only one. It extends from Damascus to the missile defense shield to the Iranian nuclear program and the natural gas route, in which gas will lose 30% of its value in case the West succeeds in overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated to a political delegation this year.

In the meeting held by Russia's FM Sergei Lavrov and US's Secretary of State John Kerry on the 26th of last February in Berlin, Lavrov expressed his irritation of the increased arming of Washington's Arab and European allies to the so-called Syrian opposition.
"Russia must help find a solution by pressuring al-Assad to leave," Kerry stressed. Lavrov then answered, "We will not pressure al-Assad to leave. If we do so, we will lose our power. Go and convince him to step down if you can. We won't."

Without clearing out the slight differences that separate the two countries and determining a serious and clear way of solution, Washington and Moscow's FMs concluded their meeting in Berlin in disagreement, except one implied agreement; Russia and the US not directly confronting each other.

According to al-Ahed News website, the ambiance indicated that Russians work on the scope of the presidential elections in Syria due Spring 2014, and Washington refused.
Exclusive sources informed al-Ahed that the Russian FM refused a demand to cut arms supply to the Syrian Army as long as the West and its allies arm the so-called opposition.

On this note, Lavrov was cited as saying, "Ceasing export of arms to Syria has to coincide with all international and regional parties."
In the same context, Moscow had received a delegation from the "Geneva Accord 2" Syrian opposition, including Dr. Haitham Manaa and attorney Rajaa al-Naser.
Sources in the Syrian coalition denied information about the democratic pole scattering between the so-called coalition and the State Building in a meeting held in Paris last week.

Source: al-Ahed News, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org