Tuesday, 7 February 2012Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is traveling to Syria in a bid to mediate the crisis there.
Lavrov is due to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad who is facing an 11-month-old uprising against his rule. Syrian armed forces are reported to have resumed their bombardment of Homs on February 6, pushing their campaign to crush the opposition revolt in the city.
The Russian diplomatic mission comes days after Russia, along with China, vetoed a UN Security Council resolution backing an Arab League plan for Assad to give up power and start a political transition.
Lavrov said passing the resolution would have meant the UN taking sides in the conflict. He also said the international criticism Russia has faced for vetoing it verged on hysterical.
"I think [the West is] trying, with the help of such hysterical statements, to hide the truth behind what is happening. And the truth is, there is more than one source of violence in Syria, there are several," Lavrov said.
Lavrov was speaking in Bahrain, one of the Arab states seeking a tougher stance on Assad.
Lavrov said Russia favors a peaceful dialogue inside Syria without outside interference.
Russia's top foreign diplomat delivered that message to Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby in a later telephone call.
In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama said Western countries remain committed to ending the Syrian crisis without resorting to force.
Western countries are scrambling to come up with a new strategy after the failure at the UN, with talk of setting up a Syrian Contact Group, much as was done as in the case of Libya.
In Beijing, Chinese state-run media said Western intervention in Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq illustrated the error of forced regime change.
Diplomatic Staff Out
Amid growing security concerns, the United States has shut its embassy in Damascus and evacuated all staff.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, "Our concern is that the situation in and around Damascus is becoming increasingly violent, reflecting the fact that the regime is increasingly losing control of the situation because it, itself, has resorted to violence rather than dialogue with its own people."
Britain said it had withdrawn its ambassador from Syria as well.
However, a spokeswoman at the Syrian Embassy in Washington, Roua Shurbaji, said Damascus was maintaining security around all embassies: "I can tell you that we have worked to spare no effort to ensure the protection and the safety and security of all the diplomatic premises and personnel in Damascus."
Meanwhile, Syrian government forces continued their bombardment of Homs on February 6, with as many as 50 people killed.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was appalled at the escalating violence in Homs, calling it "totally unacceptable before humanity."
The Syrian National Council said the Russian and Chinese vetoes at the UN had given Assad a "license to kill."
State media said "armed terrorist groups" were firing mortars at the city, setting tires alight, and firing on empty buildings to give the impression Homs was under attack by Assad forces. |
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
RFERL
|
|
