Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believes that the war in Syria has come to an end and stressed the need to promote a long-lasting settlement of the crisis in the Arab Republic and the Middle East region as a whole, Sputnik International reports.

“The war in Syria has really come to an end. The country is gradually returning to a normal, peaceful life. Some hotspots of tensions remain in the territories that are not controlled by the Syrian government, such as Idlib and the eastern bank of the Euphrates", Lavrov said in an interview with the newspaper Trud.

The minister thinks that the most important goals regarding Syria now are providing humanitarian aid for civilians and “promoting the political process on settling the crisis to achieve stable and long-lasting stabilisation of the situation in the country and the whole Middle East region".

Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Syrian opposition was playing an important role in the Syrian settlement.

“We believe the formation and launch of the committee designed to develop the constitutional reform will be an important step in advancing the political process led and carried out by the Syrians themselves with the UN's assistance", Lavrov said in an interview with the newspaper Trud. "In fact, convening it will enable the Syrian sides - the government and the opposition - to begin for the first time a direct dialogue on their country's future", he said.