Syria denies claim that Assad is ready to step down

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

PARIS – Russia's ambassador to France said Friday that he believes Syria's president is ready to step down "in a civilized way." But the Syrian government immediately denied it.

Alexander Orlov said that Bashar Assad's acceptance of an international agreement in June for a transition toward a more democratic regime, and his subsequent step of naming a representative to negotiate the transition, meant that he was prepared to give up leadership.

The country is sliding into even further chaos, with fighting around the capital Damascus intensifying two days after the inner circle of Assad's regime was hit by an attack that killed three top Syrian defense officials.

"Personally ... I think it will be difficult for him to stay in office given everything that's happened," Orlov said in an interview with Radio France Internationale.

Orlov spoke a day after Moscow vetoed a Western-backed U.N. resolution aimed at pressuring President Bashar Assad's government to end the war. Friday was the deadline for the U.N. to renew its 300-member observer mission in Syria, or let the mandate expire.

Orlov noted in the interview that Assad accepted the final statement of the June 30 Geneva agreement for a transition "toward a more democratic regime" then went the next step, naming a representative to negotiate the transition with the opposition. In essence, that meant that "he accepted to leave, but leave in a civilized way," the ambassador said.

Syrian TV quickly said that the interview had been taken out of context. Russian Embassy spokesman Sergei Parinov also said the ambassador's statement was "incorrectly interpreted" by international media. Parinov told The Associated Press that the ambassador just "restated" Russia's interpretation of Assad's response to the Geneva agreement. Parinov said the ambassador's statement was not referring to any new information coming from the Assad regime on Friday.

The remarks by the ambassador appeared to be adding a new layer of interpretation to the Geneva agreement, which was based on a U.N.-brokered peace plan that Syria's president was party to. In fact, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined at the time that the plan does not require Assad's ouster, saying there is "no attempt in the document to impose on the Syrian people any type of transitional process."

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Assad continues to be on the ropes.