 "World must facilitate peaceful Syria solution: Putin")
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the rival sides in Syria should find a peaceful way out of the crisis through mediation by the international community.
"No matter how difficult it is, we should find points of contact, facilitate their reaching agreements, find a balance of interests," Xinhua quoted Putin as saying Thursday at the Valdai International Club, a forum that debates on Russia and its role in the world.
"Then the situation in the country might stabilise for sometime and perhaps even improve," he added.
Putin pointed out the West had ignored similar Russian proposals when the NATO-led coalition was preparing for operations in Iraq.
Putin noted that ignoring Russian warnings has led to the Iraqis suffering till date.
He also took the situation in Libya as another example of the consequences of an ill-planned foreign intervention in a country's domestic conflict.
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"I am not saying that there was a correct and balanced regime (in Libya). (Muammar) Gaddafi devised his own political theory and it does not mean that it was right to apply it (to Libya) for another hundred years," the Russian president said.
"But the methods that were used to sort out this problem failed and are highly likely to fail in the future," he said.
Last weekend, Washington and Moscow struck a deal to place Syrian chemical arms under international control in a bid to avert a US military strike on the embattled Middle Eastern country.
But in subsequent days, the US and Russia have been at odds over the agreement's enforcement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had Monday dismissed calls for a UN resolution authorising military force against Syria if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad failed to comply with plans to secure chemical weapons, arguing that such an appeal amounted to a "lack of understanding" of the plan.