18 August 2012 - 19:30

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected on Friday a proposal to establish a no-fly zone over Syria to help civilians flee fighting in border areas after the U.S. said it was ready to consider the move.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - "You have to solve citizen security issues using methods put in practice by international humanitarian law," Lavrov told Sky News Arabia.

"But if you try to create no-fly zones and safety zones for military purposes by citing an international crisis this is unacceptable," he stated, according to AFP.

The U.S. and Turkey indicated on August 11 that they were studying a range of possible measures over Syria, including a no-fly zone.

"Our intelligence services, our military have very important responsibilities and roles to play so we are going to be setting up a working group to do exactly that," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after meeting her Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul.

Asked about options such as imposing a no-fly zone over rebel-held territory, Clinton said these were possibilities she and Davutoglu had agreed "need greater in-depth analysis", while indicating that no decisions were necessarily imminent.

"It is one thing to talk about all kinds of potential actions, but you cannot make reasoned decisions without doing intense analysis and operational planning," Reuters quoted Clinton as saying.

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