Russia raises specter of ‘world war’

MUNICH: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev raised the specter of a “permanent war” or a “world war” if powers failed to negotiate an end to the conflict in Syria and warned against any ground operations by US and Arab forces. Medvedev, speaking to Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper on the eve of a security conference in Munich, said the US and Russia must exert pressure on all sides in the conflict to secure a cease-fire. “All sides must be compelled to sit at the negotiating table instead of unleashing a new world war.” The United States is pushing for an immediate cease-fire, a US diplomat said Thursday as foreign ministers gathered in Munich for crisis talks on the Syrian civil war. “The US continues to push for an immediate cease-fire. We are continuing to work through various ways to achieve one as soon as possible,” the diplomat said. The comment came in response to reports that Russia has proposed a cease-fire that would not begin until March 1, in what opponents see as a bid to buy time for a Syrian government offensive in and around Aleppo. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow has made a “quite specific” cease-fire proposal but provided no other details as he sat down in Munich for talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry. “We will wait for the American response before we take it to the (International Syria Support Group),” he said, referring to the 17-nation contact group meeting in Munich on Syria.   Agencies