FM considers West stance on unilateral pressure on Syria inadmissible
MOSCOW: Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov considers inadmissible the situation when the West puts pressure only on the Syrian authorities in order to normalise the climate in the country.
“The position of our Western partners is that they insist on putting pressure on one side – the government and the president,” Lavrov said in an interview with Rossiya 24 Channel on Thursday.
“We consider this approach wrong. We want the same approach to be used towards Syria like as in Yemen,” the Russian minister pointed out.
“In any case the actions are inadmissible when peaceful civilians die. It is inadmissible to use force and violence by the opposition and make demonstrators a target for police,” he said.
“We spoke about it without disguise and we continue to speak about it,” Lavrov added.
In June, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Russia came against a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria and the country’s position remains unchanged.
“In the context of the discussions currently underway in New York I want to rivet your attention on a statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after the SCO summit in Astana. Lavrov said we came against a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria,” the diplomat said.
“Our position has been outlined by the Russian president some time ago and it remains unchanged,” Lukashevich said.
He considers a dialogue, which is proposed by Syria’s authorities, an optimal way to settle the situation in the country. “We confirm that the dialogue, which is proposed by Syria’s authorities, is an optimal way to settle the situation,” Lukashevich stressed.
“We believe that it should be substantiated and ensure further path to the deep democratic reforms, including the democratic renovation of the Syrian state and society, sustainable economic development and the observance of human rights and freedoms,” the diplomat said.
At the same time, Lukashevich noted that the situation in Syria “remains extremely tense”. “These days mass media have reported on peaceful protest actions, as well as armed actions by extremists and militants’ attempts to seize certain settlements in border regions that led to killings of civilians, law enforcers, destroying state institutions and fearing the peaceful population,” the diplomat said.
“As a result of the Syrian army’s actions the authorities placed control over all regions as a whole,” he added.
Lavrov also said Russia was against submitting Syria’s issue to the U.N. Security Council.
Russia “is against submitting the Syrian issue to the U.N. Security Council”, he said.
This issue was also in the focus of the G-8 summit in Deauville.
President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia did not favour sanctions against Syria but Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must ensure democratic transformations.
While discussing sanctions against Syria, one must remember that the United States and the European Union have already endorsed such, he said. “As a rule, the number of sanctions is immaterial for results. No one has been pushing for sanctions at the UN Security Council,” he added.
“I had a telephone conversation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about two days ago. We do not favour sanctions. We think that President al-Assad must pass from words to deeds and really hold democratic transformations in his country: to give the voting right to the opposition, to amend election laws and to prevent violence in opposition actions,” he said.
President Medvedev said he hoped that the reform policy declared by the Syrian leader would be very energetic, the Kremlin reported.
“Medvedev expressed the principled position of the Russian Federation on the events in and around Syria and expressed the hope that the reform policy declared by Bashar al-Assad would be held very energetically and in a broad dialog with the national public,” the Kremlin said.
Al-Assad said that the Syrian administration “was doing everything to ensure the free and peaceful expression of will by Syrian citizens. At the same time, the Syrian administration will not allow radical and fundamentalist groups to operate. The reform policy is the course to be implemented consistently and dynamically.”
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