Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday after his visit to Syria that Syrians themselves should decide the fate of their leader

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday after his visit to Syria that Syrians themselves should decide the fate of their leader.

“Any outcome of national dialogue should become the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all the Syrians,” Lavrov, who returned from talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, told reporters.

Lavrov also said that Assad authorized his Vice President Farouk Al-Sharaa in holding such dialogue. He told journalists that both the government and the so-called opposition should refrain from armed conflicts.

On Tuesday, Lavrov described as “very useful” his meeting with President Bashar al-Assad.

In a press conference in Damascus, Lavrov said President Assad was “fully committed” to stopping the unrest in the country, “from whatever source it comes.” “We have every reason to believe that the signal that we have brought here to move along in a more active manner along all directions has been heard,” Lavrov said.

The Russian foreign minister added that Moscow “intends to be actively engaged in” finding a solution to the unrest in Syria with the “Syrian side, Syria’s neighbors and the Arab League.”

On behalf of the Syrian people, President al-Assad thanked Russia for its stances at the UN Security Council and its commitment to supporting dialogue and national solutions instead of escalation and dictations, according to SANA news agency. He stressed that Syria is determined to carry out national dialogue with the participation of representatives of the government, the opposition and independent figures.

President al-Assad said Syria cooperated fully with the Arab League observer mission in spite of the obstacles set by some Arab sides, reiterating Syria's readiness to cooperate with any efforts exerted to support stability in Syria, it added.

Russian officials said Lavrov’s Tuesday trip to Damascus was because Moscow sought “the swiftest stabilization of the situation in Syria on the basis of the swiftest implementation of democratic reforms whose time has come.”

According to Russian media reports, Lavrov said President Assad will “in the nearest future” meet with a commission that has been preparing the “draft of a new constitution” and the schedule of a referendum on the draft “will be announced.”