MOSCOW, May 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met on Monday with a delegation of the Popular Front for Change and Liberation to discuss the situation in Syria with an accent on the search for ways of peaceful settlement, Foreign Ministry sources said.

“The Syrian side gave high marks to Russia’s efforts to prevent a foreign coercive intervention in Syria and Moscow’s firm commitment to an early inter-Syrian national accord with due regard to legal interests of all groups and layers of the Syrian society,” the ministry said.

“Members of the delegation expressed gratitude for Russia’s practical moves towards rendering assistance and its contribution to an improvement of humanitarian situation in the Syrian Arab Republic,” it added.

Lavrov, for his part, confirmed “Russia’s unalterable readiness to maintain contacts with all Syrians concerned about the fate of their Fatherland, and spoke in favor of consolidation of all patriotic forces of the Syrian Arab Republic on the platform of broad national dialogue and resistance to terrorism and extremism,” it said.

“The minister urged forces of the Syrian patriotic opposition to actively participate in the political process, constructive contribution to ensure an end to violence in Syria, broader practice of local truces, the settlement of humanitarian problems of the affected population,” they added.