Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks at a news conference in Moscow on June 15, 2012.

US State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland said on Thursday that Moscow and Washington “are continuing to talk about a post-Assad transition strategy.”

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had also claimed that Paris was discussing a post-Assad Syria with Moscow.

"The Russians are not today attached to the person of Bashar al-Assad," Fabius said on Friday, adding that the talks focus on a "Yemen-style" political transition.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday rejected the claims, saying that Moscow had not been discussing plans for a political transition in Syria that would include Assad’s departure from power.

’’It’s not true that we are discussing Syria’s fate after Bashar Assad. We aren’t dealing with a regime change either through approving unilateral actions at the United Nations Security Council, nor through taking part in some political conspiracies,’’ Lavrov said following talks with his Iraqi counterpart in Moscow.

The top Russian diplomat also renewed Moscow’s calls for establishing a contact group to implement Kofi Annan’s peace plan, and called for regional countries including Iran to be included in the talks.

Earlier in the day, he said that the Syrians themselves must decide the future of their country, warning that a push for the ouster of Assad would plunge Syria into an all-out war.

Pressing for Assad’s ouster, "contrary to the aspirations of a considerable segment of Syrian society that still relies on this regime for its security and well-being, would mean plunging Syria into a protracted and bloody civil war,’’ Lavrov wrote in an opinion piece posted Friday on the Huffington Post.

Russia, which along with China, has blocked two UN Security Council resolutions against Syria , has repeatedly said that negotiation is the only way to end months of violence in the country and has expressed strong opposition to foreign military intervention.

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Press TV, June 15, 2012.