Russia’s top diplomat made this statement while opening a meeting with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts Mevlut Cavusoglu and Mohammad Javad Zarif.

MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. Western countries are making statements on the support for Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity as a cover for their plans to reformat the Middle East and ruin the Arab republic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday.

"For Western countries, the statements in support of the sovereignty, independence and the territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic are just words, which to all appearances are intended to cover up the plans for re-formatting the Middle East and dividing Syria into parts," Russia’s top diplomat said.

"I am confident that Russia, Turkey and Iran, while confirming our support for the fundamental principles of the UN Charter, sincerely want the Syrian Arab Republic to remain a unified state, in which all ethnic and confessional groups will get equal rights and will be able to live in peace among themselves and with all their neighbors," Russia’s top diplomat said.

"Today we need to help Syrians complete freeing the country from terrorists and we are helping the Syrian government build bridges of national reconciliation and restore what has been destroyed," Lavrov said.

Russia’s top diplomat slammed as unacceptable the attempts to destabilize the situation in Syria, encourage extremists and advance preliminary conditions for dialogue that do not comply with the UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

"This would mean an invitation to dividing lines inside the SAR, against which all of us speak," Lavrov said.