Russian FM: Supporting Syrian opposition leads to nowhere

Supporting the armed Syrian opposition in order to restore military balance has no prospects, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday. "We are concerned over the statements from the so-called Syrian Free Army and from some U.S. representatives that the support for the armed opposition will be continued to restore military balance on the ground," Lavrov told reporters after meeting with Organization of Islamic Cooperation Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. "It's a road to nowhere," he said, labelling those statements as "a start of a vicious circle." "I hope all our partners who support the Russia-U.S. initiative (to convene an international conference on Syria) in words, would be guided by it as an absolute priority in practice," the minister said. He called it "hypocritical" the attempts to describe a military operation of the Syrian government troops in the town of Qusayr as targeting the civilians. "We would push to implement the demands to obey international humanitarian law by all sides, including the government and opposition," Lavrov said. The U.S. Department of State said earlier that the Syrian government forces were experiencing problems in fighting the opposition. "This logically means that they are facing well-trained and well-armed combat units," the diplomat added. Qusayr has been under the rebel's control since February before the Syrian government forces tried to retake the strategic town on the border with Lebanon on May 19.