The United States and Russia reportedly agreed to a measure by which Syrian President Bashar Assad would step down after 21 months of violent insurrection, and a transitional government would assume power, Arabic newspaper A-Sharq Al-Awsat cited opposition group members saying on Saturday.

According to the report in the London-based paper, the US convinced Russia to change its stance on Syria during high-level diplomatic meetings in Dublin and Geneva. Moscow reportedly consented to tell Assad that he could either step down in an orderly transfer of power and receive international protection, or that his safety would not be guaranteed and negotiations for a transition government would be held without him.

The plan would create a transitional government made up of regime and opposition figures, diplomatic sources told the Daily Telegraph . Russian officials told the British newspaper that Moscow was prepared to ease the Syrian president out of power.

“Assad doesn't have a future, he knows this,” it quoted a senior Russian official saying. “But he is not a fool. He will not just go voluntarily. All sides must sit down and negotiate a way out of this. That means we talk to Assad but those who back the rebels must put pressure on them.”

[link to www.timesofisrael.com]