Moscow (ANTARA/AFP) - Russia is not discussing Bashar al-Assad with the United States, a deputy foreign minister said Wednesday after a report said the West was pushing Moscow to offer the Syrian president exile. "The situation with the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is not being discussed with the United States," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency. Moscow's Kommersant daily had earlier quoted a Russian diplomatic source as saying that Western nations led by the United States were making "active attempts" to persuade Moscow to offer a home to Assad. But the report added that Moscow objected to the idea and Ryabkov stressed that Russia rejected a foreign solution to the 16-month-long conflict that monitors say have claimed more than 16,500 lives. "We have outlined our position many times: who holds power in Syria is an issue that must be settled by the Syrian people," said Ryabkov. "Schemes offered -- or worse yet, imposed -- from the outside can only hurt."(*)

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