Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Tuesday for an end to “unrealistic and illogical” demands for the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Tuesday for an end to “unrealistic and illogical” demands for the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“If we remove from the equation the entirely unrealistic and counterproductive demand of the resignation of Assad as a precondition for the fight against terrorism... we may work effectively,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.

He went on to say that the West has double standards when it comes to the legitimacy of Assad.

“It simply cannot be that, for the purpose of the destruction of chemical weapons Assad is legitimate, and for the purpose of fighting against terrorism he is not. It is not logical,” Lavrov said.