Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dismissed as "dirty leaks" reports of an alleged agreement between Russia and the United States on the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"Our American partners cannot publicly call into question this formula that...only the people of Syria decide all the questions about the future of Syria," Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow on April 1.
The Arabian newspaper Al-Hayat reported on March 31 that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had told several Arab countries that Russia and the United States had reached an understanding on the future of Syria's peace process, including Assad's departure to another country at some unspecified stage.