TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A Kremlin spokesman denied reports that Russian president Vladimir Putin sent a senior intelligence official to Damascus late last year to ask the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to step down.








A report in the Financial Times on Friday quoted western intelligence sources detailing the apparent mission of Colonel-General Igor Sergun to Damascus.

According to the newspaper report, Sergun delivered a message from Putin that it was time for Assad to stand down, but was firmly rebuffed by the Syrian leader, The Guardian reports.

�No, that is not the case,� said Dmitry Peskov, Putin�s spokesman on Friday, when asked about the mission.

Moscow entered the Syrian conflict in late September, providing air support for Assad�s army. Moscow says Assad is the legitimate ruler of the country and must play a part in any settlement, while the west has seen Assad as part of the problem rather than the solution.

Little is known about Sergun�s apparent mission to Damascus, or indeed about Sergun�s biography at all. Head of GRU, the highly secretive military intelligence agency, he died on 3 January, just weeks after the mission to Damuscus.

By Tasnim News Agency