Syrian government forces will not stop fighting or withdraw from positions unless rebel forces instantly mirror their move, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said today, underscoring continued divisions between Moscow and the West.
"This must be simultaneous," said Mr Lavrov, whose talks with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton at the United Nations yesterday brought no agreement on how to end more than a year of bloodshed in Syria.
"There must not be a situation where it is demanded that the government leave cities and towns and the same is not demanded of armed groups," he told a news conference after talks with his Filipino counterpart.
Western powers on the UN Security Council say president Bashar al-Assad's government should take the first step. After meeting with Mr Lavrov, Ms Clinton said: "First and foremost the Assad government has to end the violence".
The Russian foreign minister dismissed that demand as "absolutely unrealistic".
"The Syrian authorities will not do this, whether we want it or not, and everybody understands this perfectly well," he said.
Mr Lavrov said a simultaneous ceasefire effort could be aided by an independent "monitoring mechanism" - one of "five principles" for a Syria settlement he agreed with Arab League counterparts on Saturday. But he gave few details of what that would entail.
"The task is for both sides to understand that there is an independent monitor of how they will carry out demands ... for an immediate ceasefire," said Mr Lavrov. He added that the idea was being discussed as part of international efforts, including by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, to end the violence.
Mr Assad's army has led a year-long crackdown the United Nations says has killed more than 8,000 people.
Along with China, Russia used its veto power in the Security Council on February 4th to block a Western-Arab resolution that would have condemned Mr Assad's government for the violence and backed an Arab League call for him to step aside.
Mr Assad has given Moscow its strongest foothold in the Middle East, buying billions of dollars worth of Russian arms and hosting a Mediterranean maintenance and supply facility that is Russia's only naval base outside the former Soviet Union.
Deputy defence minister Anatoly Antonov defended Moscow's military ties with Syria, where he said an unspecified number of Russian "military specialists" are stationed to train Syrians to use weapons Russia has supplied under contracts.
"We have military specialists there, we cooperate with Syria in the military sphere - this is no secret," Mr Antonov told foreign journalists.
"At the moment we have no grounds to reconsider this military cooperation," said Mr Antonov, who had previously said Russia's arms contracts with Syria violate no laws.
Russia says it is motivated not by a desire to protect Assad but by a determination to oppose external intervention and avert a repeat of last year's events in Libya, where Moscow says Nato nations used a UN resolution as a pretext to help rebels oust Muammar Gadafy.
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, who won a six-year presidential term on March 4th, has often accused the United States of meddling in the affairs of sovereign countries during 12 years in power, and made such criticism a key theme of his campaign.