Clinton's Syria aide presses Russia in Moscow

RUSSIA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Syria pointman Fred Hof was to meet top Russian diplomats Friday in a bid to persuade Moscow to back strongman President Bashar al-Assad's removal from power.

The high-stakes talks come as pressure mounts on Russia -- a Soviet-era ally of Syria believed to have the world's greatest remaining influence on the regime -- to back a political transition that would ultimately see Assad go.

Moscow has publicly distanced itself from Assad in recent weeks while still supplying his army with weapons and adamantly vowing to resist all calls for foreign military intervention aimed at halting the 15-month crisis.

"There will not be a Security Council mandate for outside intervention, I guarantee you that," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday on the sidelines of a trip to Kazakhstan by President Vladimir Putin.

Russia has made a counter-proposal met with great scepticism by the United States that would see regional players such as Iran sit down with world powers and try to negotiate a joint strategy suitable to all Syrians.

AFP