OREANDA-NEWS. Russia has never built its foreign policy in such a way as to harm the United States on issues related to the Syrian settlement. This was stated on Tuesday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking at the Russian session of the Paris Peace Forum. "Never in our life did we plan our foreign policy in order to annoy the United States", Lavrov said.

He emphasized that the Russian Federation in the east is conducting a dialogue with all parties. In the case of Syria, he continued, Moscow is negotiating with the government and the opposition, and, of course, with the Americans.

“Back in 2013, we were very close to concluding a deal with the United States on how to resolve the Syrian conflict. The deal we made with John Kerry was that the government’s air forces wouldn't raid and any operations of Russia and the United States would be coordinated. We had a veto on each other’s operations”, Lavrov recalled.

According to him, the only condition was that the United States draw a clear line between Jebhat al-Nusra (banned in the Russian Federation) and other opposition. "But they didn't. The examples of recent years have shown us that the United States still supports al-Nusra, despite the fact that in the United States this organization is considered a terrorist organization", the Russian Foreign Minister said.