Only Geneva agreement will end Syria crisis: Russia

Russia has described the implementation of Geneva agreement, which calls for establishment of a transitional government in Syria, as the only way to end the ongoing crisis in the Arab country.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Sunday that the Geneva communiqué agreed on in June 2012 is “the basis, without any alternative, for political regulation of the Syrian crisis.”

Bogdanov, who is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Middle East envoy, said the Geneva deal enables Syrians to decide the fate and future of their country themselves, adding that “our task is to actively help them with this and encourage agreement.”

He made the remarks at the end of his three-day visit to Lebanon.

Bogdanov’s trip to Lebanon included meetings with various top government officials, as well as Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Bogdanov said on Saturday that claims that chemical weapons have been used in Syria should not be used as a pretext for foreign military intervention in the country.

“We must know the truth and have proof and not rely on information reported in the media which is not supported by facts,” Bogdanov said in Beirut .

“We have the past experience of another violent intervention in Iraqi affairs under the pretext of the presence of nuclear weapons, and it turned out in the end that there was nothing,” he added.