Syria: Russia Accuses West Of Encouraging Terrorism To Pressure UN
Russian Information Agency Novosti
July 25, 2012
Russia Hits Out at West’s ‘Chilling’ Syria Stance
MOSCOW: Russia accused Western powers on Wednesday of encouraging terrorism over their refusal to condemn the suicide bombing that killed Syria’s defense minister last week.
“In other words, they are saying: ‘We will continue to support such terrorist acts until the UN Security Council does what we want it to,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists. “This is a chilling position.”
Four top Syrian security officials, including Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, were killed when a rebel suicide bomber managed to infiltrate the government building where they were meeting in the capital, Damascus, on July 18.
The United States envoy to the UN, Susan Rice, said after the bombing that the attack was further proof of the necessity to adopt a Security Council resolution against the regime of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad…
Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed UN resolution on Syria on July 19 over fears that it would lead to foreign military intervention in the Middle East country, a stance that United States envoy to the United Nations Susan Rice called “paranoid if not disingenuous.”
The resolution was tied to Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which would have provided for the use of force to put an end to the rapidly escalating conflict.
This was the third time that Russia and China had vetoed a UN resolution on Syria.
Russia says it has no special interest in seeing Assad remain in power, but that the “Syrian people” should decide his fate. And Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed earlier this year not to allow a repeat of the “Libya scenario” which saw the ouster and murder of…Muammar Gaddafi after a NATO military campaign.
Speaking as fighting continued to rage in both Damascus and Syria’s second city of Aleppo, Lavrov also criticized new unilateral European Union sanctions against Syria introduced on Monday.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said earlier in the day that the sanctions were “counter-productive” and “incapable of resolving the situation in Syria.”
EU foreign ministers decided at Monday’s meeting in Brussels to introduce rules obliging the organization’s 27 member states to search airplanes and ships suspected of carrying weapons to Syria. Assets freezes and visa bans were also introduced against Syrian officials.
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Voice of Russia
Agencies
July 25, 2012
US justifies terrorism in Syria – Russian official
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dismissed as unacceptable the failure of some Western top officials to condemn the deadly terror attack on Damascus on July 18, slamming it as a downright justification of terrorism.
Mr. Lavrov cited US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, who went so far as to say that this terror act proved the UN Security Council must hurry and adopt a resolution on Syria.
Sergei Lavrov pointed out this stand of the US effectively meant it would be backing terror attacks on Syria until the UN caved in to its demands.
Foreign Minister Lavrov has said that the West’s support of the armed Syrian opposition amounts to turning a blind eye to terrorism.
He spoke about this in Moscow Wednesday after American UN Ambassador Susan Rice refused to condemn the Damascus terror attack that killed several Syrian Ministers, and State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of plotting to torpedo Western-tabled Security Council resolutions on Syria.
Lavrov said he believes these statements make the American accusations that Russia and China are fanning the Syrian conflict sound insincere and hollow.
The July 18 bomb destroyed the Damascus headquarters of Syria’s national security service and killed several top Syrian officials, including Defence Minister Daoud Rajiha and national security chief Hisham Bakhtiyar.The Free Syrian Army said at the time that it was responsible.
Moscow accuses EU of Syria ‘blockade’
Moscow has said it will not back up a fresh package of unilateral sanctions against Syria, which it referred to as a virtual “sea and air blockade.”
This came today in the Russian Foreign Ministry white paper, published on its official site.
The Russian foreign office slammed the new round of sanctions as “counterproductive” to the peace settlement process in the region, adding it was contradictory to UN special envoy Kofi Annan’s plan, as well as to the final communiqué issued by the action group meeting in Geneva.
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Interfax
July 25, 2012
EU’s fresh sanctions a declaration of sea and air blockade against Syria – Russia
MOSCOW: The Russian Foreign Ministry sees the EU oreign Affairs Council’s decision to impose the 17th package of sanctions on Syria as the declaration of a sea and air blockade against that country.
“This package must be examined by experts for its compliance with international law, first of all the EU provisions dealing with “the EU member-states’ duty to inspect third countries’ aircraft and ships heading to Syria, if the member-states suspect that the cargo transported contains weapons or riot gear,” The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary on Wednesday.
“In fact, the measures being taken by the European Union may be qualified as the declaration of a sea and air blockade against Syria. Our position on unilateral sanctions is well known. Russia does not recognize them and sees them as counterproductive, as hampering normalization in Syria and going against the letter and spirit of the UN/LAS envoy Kofi Annan’s plan and the Final Communique of the Action Group’s Geneva meeting,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
