Reuters reports: Any solution to the conflict in Syria must ensure President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and his opponents do not simply swap roles and fight on forever, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

In what appeared to be his first direct comments on the possibility of a post-Assad Syria, Putin said he did not believe that a military solution could hold.

“We are not concerned about the fate of Assad’s regime. We understand what is going on there and that the family has held power for 40 years,” Putin told a news conference.

“We are worried about a different thing – what next? We simply don’t want the current opposition, having become the authorities, to start fighting the people who are the current authorities … and (we don’t want) this to go on forever.”