Russia's Lavrov backs counter-terrorism cooperation

By Hakan Ceyhan Aydogan

MOSCOW (AA) – Russia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday the assassination of his country’s ambassador to Turkey would fail to "ax" counter-terrorism efforts.

"If the aim of yesterday's attack on Russia’s ambassador to Ankara was to ax the fight against terrorism, they need to know that [they] cannot reach their aims," Sergey Lavrov told reporters before a bilateral meeting in Moscow with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif.

Andrey Karlov was shot multiple times at an art exhibition in Ankara late Monday.

Before their meeting, Lavrov and Zarif laid flowers for the slain diplomat.

Lavrov said the world needed to cooperate on counter-terrorism.

Zarif said he hoped the trilateral meeting between Russia, Turkey and Iran on Syria would be "productive".

The foreign ministers are later expected to hold a joint news conference.

*Diyar Guldogan in Ankara contributed to this report.