Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday night that his country would not support military intervention by the West to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He said that such an operation “would have serious consequences for the region.”

With that, Lavrov said that Moscow was not opposed to a change in government in Syria, as long as the change was done at the prompting of the Syrian people. He emphasized that Russia was not going to change its mind on the issue.