[The Times of India]
MOSCOW: Russia and France on Tuesday admitted they still had differences over how to solve the Syrian conflict ahead of a debate in the UN Security Council over stripping the country of its chemical arsenal.
After meeting in Moscow, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and French counterpart Laurent Fabius said they had differing visions of how to proceed toward the common goal of a peaceful and chemical weapons-free Syria.
Russia also strongly rejected claims by both France and the United States that a UN report released on a sarin attack outside Damascus on August 21 placed the blame with the Syrian government.
Despite sharing the same goal of destroying Syria’s weapons and holding an eventual peace conference, “we have differences over how to achieve it,” Lavrov said.