Lavrov meets Kerry to hold dialogue with government

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday met his US counterpart John Kerry in Berlin to discuss the crisis in Syria, bilateral relations and other important international issues. "The meeting, which is the first between Lavrov and Kerry, was a new destination in the Russian, US relations, though it didn't make any considerable breakthrough," Russia Today Website said. It added that both sides discussed the crisis in Syria and bilateral relations. The Russian Foreign Minister called on the Syrian opposition to hold dialogue with the government and nominate its representatives. "We hope the Syrian opposition would express support for dialogue as it issued conflicting statements in this regard, we hope the opposition would not only support dialogue, but also nominate its team for negotiations," the Russian Today TV site quoted the Russian Minister as telling reporters following the meeting. He added, during the latest visit of Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem to Moscow, the Syrian government announced its readiness to start dialogue as soon as possible and that it has a team for negotiations. Lavrov affirmed that Russia and the US intend to exert all possible efforts to pave the way for launching the dialogue between the opposition and the Syrian government. "The most important thing is that we underlined our understanding on not accepting the continuation of violence.. based on this fact, we affirmed determination to do our best," Lavrov said. He clarified that the problems of the Syrians would not be solved except by the Syrians themselves, but it is important to sit to the dialogue table.