A day after US threatened unilateral military action against Damascus, Russia stressed there should be no outside interference in Syria.

A day after US threatened unilateral military action against Damascus, Russia stressed there should be no outside interference in Syria.

"There should be no interference from the outside," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.
"The only thing that foreign players should do is create conditions for the start of dialogue," Lavrov told reporters after talks with Syria's visiting Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil.

US President Barack Obama raised on Monday the possibility of unilateral military action against Syria.
 He warned Syria of "enormous consequences" in case it used chemical weapons.
Obama said pointedly that he had not ordered military engagement against President Bashar Assad’s regime "at this point".

But the use of chemical weapons "would change my calculations significantly," Obama said.

Lavrov refused to field questions from reporters and did not specifically mention Obama.
The Russian top diplomat delivered a similar message after a meeting earlier in the day with a senior official from China -- a country that together with Russia blocked three UN Security Council resolutions condemning Assad's regime.

Also on Tuesday, Lavrov expressed frustration with what he called the Syrian government's overly cautious approach to direct negotiations with the armed opposition.

He had said on meeting Jamil on Tuesday that the Damascus government's current policies were "not enough" to halt ongoing crisis.

Lavrov repeated that message after the meeting with Jamil while insisting that all Russia or any other outside player could do was help promote talks.

"Something could have been done differently," Lavrov said of previous undelivered Syrian reform promises.
"But the most important thing is that the right course has been set," Lavrov added in reference to the need for talks.