BEIRUT: Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin said over the weekend the Arab League observer mission to Syria needed to be supported both morally and politically, adding that the crisis in that country could only be resolved through a political settlement.

“The developments once again show that there is no alternative to a political compromise at the internal level, which the Arab League initiative stipules,” Zasypkin said after meeting Lebanese Foreign Affairs Minister Adnan Mansour Saturday, the National News Agency reported.

Commenting on the work of the observer mission to Syria, Zaspykin said the team faced a “tough and dangerous task and it requires both moral and political support.”

Russia backed Friday a first assessment by the head of the observer mission to Syria, Sudanese Gen. Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, that the situation in the country was “reassuring.”

“Judging by the public statements made by the chief of the mission Dabi, who in the first of his visits went to the city of Homs, ... the situation seems to be reassuring,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on its website.

After meeting with Mansour Saturday, Zasypkin said Moscow was working on a U.N. Security Council Resolution that would press for a lack of foreign intervention in Syria, a halt to violence from all sides and taking steps to ensure “broad dialogue between the [government] and the opposition without prior conditions.”

Zasypkin said Russia was sure sanctions on one side would not halt the violence or secure reforms, and “we see our mission is to encourage a political compromise in Syria.”

Asked about what stage the Russia’s draft Security Council Resolution was at, Zasypkin said: “I do not have any of the latest details and we are focusing now on the observer mission.”

For his part, Mansour pointed to Russia’s stance on the Syria crisis, which he said had been from the very start opposed to foreign interference at the internal level, the NNA said.

Mansour said Russia, given its leading position in the Arab World, could play an important and effective in order to help end the crisis in Syria, “in order to protect [Syria’s] security, stability and unity,” the agency added.

The United Nations estimates over 5,000 Syrians, mostly civilians, have been killed in a crackdown by Damascus on protesters seeking the departure of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Syrian authorities deny targeting civilians, blaming their deaths on “armed gangs.”