Transcript of Remarks by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov Following Meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa and Minister of Foreign Affairs Walid Muallem, Damascus, September 7, 2006

Foreign Minister Lavrov: During the visit to Damascus, meetings took place with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa and talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs Walid Muallem. Syria is our long-standing and important partner in the Middle East. We paid the main attention to the necessity to help comprehensively stabilize conditions in the region, primarily implement the Security Council resolution on Lebanon and the decisions that put an end to the war and which are now being carried out. It is important that they should be fulfilled in full. I hope that today's lifting by Israel of its blockade of the air and sea space of Lebanon will indeed lead to an improvement of the situation and help more promptly deliver aid to rehabilitate the destroyed Lebanese infrastructure.

As to a broader picture, undoubtedly we have now all become convinced that without a comprehensive settlement in the Middle East on all tracks - the Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian - a long-term solution to the problems of this long-suffering region can hardly be expected. The League of Arab States has come up with an initiative to hold an international conference on all aspects of Middle East settlement. Russia has long since been advocating this kind of approach. We agreed that we would together be working in the United Nations Organization and in other formats to implement this initiative.

Surely we dwelt on the development of Russian-Syrian relations and looked at how the accords are being implemented that were reached by our presidents during al-Assad's visit to Moscow in 2005. We have made good headway in the economic field. The business council is actively working. Russian companies have reached agreements in the oil and gas industry with the Syrian colleagues, and good prospects exist in the electric power industry.