Syrian opposition demands Assad resign to start dialogue

The Syrian opposition is ready for dialogue only as soon as military operations stop, a rebel leader Hassan Abdulazim said at a meeting with Kofi Annan, special envoy of the UN and Arab League (LAS), Interfax reports.

Annan arrived in Damascus on Saturday as a mediator.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made a speech at the 137th session of LAS foreign ministers in Cairo on Saturday and said that the Syrian resolution project has chances to be passed at the UN Security Council.

Syrian President Bashar Assad met Annan and said that terrorists were preventing the settlement of conflict by destabilizing the situation, Vzgliad reports.

Washington urges Russia and China to make Assad stop violence, spokeswoman of the US State Department Victoria Nuland said. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton requested the same in a telephone conversation with Sergey Lavrov a few days earlier.