RUSSIA/USA: Russia says it will veto an 'unacceptable' Syria resolution if it worsens the crisis, demanding that intervention is ruled out

Record ID: 336417

  • Title: RUSSIA/USA: Russia says it will veto an 'unacceptable' Syria resolution if it worsens the crisis, demanding that intervention is ruled out
  • Date: 2nd February 2012
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FEBRUARY 1, 2012) (REUTERS) CAMERAMAN FILMING JOURNALISTS IN VIDEOLINK STUDIO TELECONFERENCE IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 17th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa, Russian Federation
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5FM3LUYBUST5CW6H2U4WB33G0
  • Story Text: Russia said on Wednesday (February 1) it would veto any U.N. resolution on Syria it finds unacceptable, after demanding any measure rule out military intervention to halt bloodshed touched off by protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.
    The political violence in Syria has killed at least 5,000 people in the past 10 months and activists say Assad's forces have stepped up operations this week against opposition strongholds, from Damascus suburbs to the cities of Hama, Homs and the border provinces of Deraa and Idlib.
    Arab and Western states urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday (January 31) to act swiftly on a resolution calling for Assad to hand over power to his deputy and defuse the 11-month-old uprising against his family's dynastic rule.
    "If the text is unacceptable for us we will vote against it, of course," Russian U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin told reporters in Moscow via a videolink from New York organised by Russian state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
    "If it is a text that we consider erroneous, that will lead to a worsening of the crisis, we will not allow it to be passed. That is unequivocal," he said.
    Russia and China, both veto-wielding Security Council members, have resisted a Western push for a resolution condemning the Syrian government's crackdown on unrest.
    "It's important to do what you consider necessary, so that a further escalation of tension doesn't happen, because the situation there (in Syria) is really very serious. If it continues to develop like this and the momentum remains, then there might be a deep regional crisis, which will spread to the neighbouring countries, or perhaps even wider to the Middle East region," Churkin told journalists during the teleconference.
    His remarks came hours after Russia's envoy to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said there was no chance the Western-Arab draft text could be accepted unless it expressly rejected armed intervention.
    Churkin also said Russia would not stop arms supplies to Syria as some U.N. Security Council members neither want to condemn armed opposition groups in Syria nor to acknowledge that Syrian opposition is being supplied with weapons from abroad.
    "What if we break all these (arms supply contracts with Syria) but they (countries supporting Syrian opposition) start delivering more weapons as they did it say in the Libyan situation. So, regretfully, this is what the situation looks like. That is why we're categorically saying we will not place any (arms) embargo, not even make a hint of any embargo in this situation," Churkin said.
    Russia says the West exploited fuzzy wording in a March 2011 U.N. Security Council resolution on Libya to turn a mandate to protect civilians in the North African country's uprising into a push to remove the government, backed by NATO air strikes, that led to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.
    Russia has also expressed concern that the draft's threat of further measures against Syria could lead to sanctions, which it opposes. Its diplomats also want to remove the draft's support for the Arab League's plan for Assad to cede power.
    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the policy of isolation and trying to remove the government risked igniting a "much bigger drama" in the Middle East.
    The Arab League secretary-general, Nabil Elaraby, called on the U.N. Security Council to take "rapid and decisive action" by approving the resolution.
    The United States strongly endorsed the appeal from the Arab League and Qatar for "rapid and decisive action", but China reiterated its reservations.
    Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari rejected the suggestion his government was responsible for the crisis and accused Western powers of dreaming of "the return of colonialism and hegemony" in the Middle East.
    Syria's state news agency SANA said a general, Rajeh Mahmoud, was killed along with three soldiers on the outskirts of Damascus on Wednesday.
    Syrian insurgents said Assad's forces extended a military sweep overnight to counter a rebel threat that had reached the gates of the capital, sending armour into eastern and northern suburbs that Assad's forces took over this week. An activist group said at least 25 people had been killed in that sweep.
    In Wadi Barada on the edge of the capital, four people were killed in a tank bombardment on Wednesday to flush out rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) units operating near the capital, activists said.
    A rebel spokesman put the death toll at 15.
    SANA said troops killed 11 members of an "armed terrorist group" outside the southern city of Deraa, and that government forces discovered bomb factories and field hospitals in a raid on armed cells in Irbin and Sabqa, Damascus suburbs where insurgents had appeared recently.
    It was not possible to verify the reports as Syria restricts access for independent media.
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