Russia and France acknowledge disagreement on the Syrian conflict

AFP , Tuesday 17 Sep 2013

Russian and French foreign ministers address the differences in their positions toward Syria

The foreign ministers of Russia and France admitted on Tuesday that they still differed in their approaches on how to end the Syrian conflict, despite a landmark agreement for Damascus to hand over its chemical weapons.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with French counterpart Laurent Fabius that while Moscow and Paris had the same aim of ending the bloodshed "we have certain differences on the ways to reaching this (aim)." Fabius said there was a "difference in the approach on the methods."

Lavrov meanwhile reaffirmed Moscow's doubt that the Syrian government was behind a deadly chemical weapons attack on 21 August, saying "we have the most serious basis to believe that this was a provocation."

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