RIA Novosti
Russia is against any UN resolution on Syria as the situation in the country is not threatening to global security, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday.
Britain and France submitted a new draft resolution on Syria on Wednesday. The UN Security Council will vote on the document in the next few days.
“The Russian president has repeatedly said Russia opposes any UN Security Council resolution on Syria,” Lukashevich said. “The situation in the country does not pose any threat to international peace and security.”
Russia is a permanent UN Security Council member with veto-wielding power.
Lukashevich said “extremist calls, including from the so-called foreign-based opposition to topple the regime and avoid all-national dialogue are not helping to calm the situation.”
He added that Russia was increasingly concerned over reports about radicals’ moving to confrontation with military and law enforcement officials, which only further escalates the situation and breeds violence.
Unrest in Syria began in mid-March and has swept the northwestern and western parts of the country and the area near the capital Damascus.
At least 1,200 people have been killed in protests, according to the opposition and human rights organizations. Syrian authorities have put the blame on gunmen relying on support from outside the country.
Voice of Russia
Official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich says that Russia doesn’t think that the UN Security Council must adopt any resolutions on Syria. The situation in Syria presents no threat to any other country, he believes.
This statement from Russia came after the UK and France suggested a draft of a new UN Security Council’s resolution on Syria on Wednesday.
“This draft resolution criticizes the Syrian government’s policy,” Mr. Lukashevich said. “Meanwhile, the opponents of the Syrian government are using terroristic methods. If this resolution is adopted, this would be accepted as if the UN supports these terrorists.”
Russia believes that the Syrian conflict must be solved by the Syrians themselves, without any interference from abroad.
The articles by RIA Novosti and the Voice of Russia, reproduced for non-profit educational purposes here, were both published on 9 June 2011. Cf. Sergey Lavrov, “As to the proposal that in addition to the Libyan theme in which the UN Security Council and the whole international community are already bogged down, to consider the Syria issue too, I believe that diplomacy must tackle problems through political means, rather than creating the conditions for sliding into new armed conflicts” (Transcript of Remarks and Response to Media Questions by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at Joint Press Conference Following Talks with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store, Oslo, June 7, 2011).
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