Russia Foreign Minister to Visit Syria for Assad Talks

Russia said Saturday that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Damascus on Tuesday along with the foreign intelligence service chief for talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"On the order of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Sergei Lavrov and Mikhail Fradkov will visit Damascus on February 7 for a meeting with Bashar Assad," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The statement gave no further details on the nature of his trip which comes as Russia faces increasing pressure from Western powers to support a U.N. resolution condemning the regime's crackdown on protestors.

It also offered no clues on the role in the meeting of Fradkov, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), an ultra-secret organization that is the successor to the KGB.

Lavrov had said earlier Saturday that the Western-backed text of a U.N. Security Council resolution on the violence in Syria did not suit Moscow at all and warned of a "scandal" if that draft was brought to a vote.

Russia has repeatedly objected to the current text -- introduced by Morocco and backed by Western powers -- saying any resolution must make clear it cannot be used to justify foreign military intervention in Syria.

Moscow is also vehemently against a call for Assad to step down and opposes any arms embargo against Syria, which remains one of Russia's prime weapons buyers.

But Lavrov had insisted in an interview with Australian television earlier this week that Russia was not a friend of Assad.

"We're not a friend, we're not an ally of President Assad. We never said that President Assad remaining in power is the solution to the crisis," he said.

Analysts have said that Russia is defying the West despite the escalating violence in Syria that has already left thousands dead as it fears Assad's departure would cost Moscow its last remaining ally in the region.

The Kremlin appears to be seeking to prevent a repeat of the conflict in Libya where a NATO air campaign led to the ousting of its ally Moammar Gadhafi and the loss of key arms contracts for the Russian weapons industry.