‘We have our own red line’: Russian deputy FM on Western-sponsored UNSC draft resolution on Syria
Russia has its own ‘red lines’ regarding a UN Security Council resolution on Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said, adding that Moscow is going to study the draft by the US, UK, and France with a critical eye.
It is going to be “very difficult” for the Security Council member states to find a compromise on the Syrian resolution, Ryabkov warned. “I don’t want to make assumptions on how the work will go on, but one has to understand that we have obvious ‘red lines.’ Probably, there are some kind of important ‘red lines’ for the Western group as well.”
“We’re going to evaluate the proposal of the Western troika with a critical eye. We don’t decide anything for ourselves in advance – if there are reasonable elements there, we’re going to work on them,” he said.
The deputy foreign minister added that Moscow will use all possible means to pull relations with the West out of a dangerous “political nosedive.” The channels of communication between Moscow and Washington are still open, he said.
The US, UK, and France have prepared their own resolution after the Russian draft was rejected by the Security Council during an emergency session on Saturday.
The draft, which urged Washington and its allies to “immediately and without delay cease the aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic and refrain from further aggressive acts in violation of the international law and the UN Charter,” failed to receive enough votes to pass. It was rejected by eight countries, including the US, UK, and France.
Early Saturday morning, Washington and its allies unleashed scores of missiles on civilian and military facilities in Syria in response to an alleged gas attack in Douma on April 7, which the West blamed on Bashar Assad’s government. Damascus and Moscow previously rejected the chemical attack accusations, saying the whole thing may have been fabricated.
Russia and Syria have also called on the international community for an independent investigation. The missile strikes occurred on the same day that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) arrived in Damascus to investigate the claims.
“The process of destruction [of Syrian chemical weapons in 2013-14] was carried out in close cooperation of the involved countries, including the US, and under strict international supervision,” Ryabkov said. “Therefore, I don’t understand the endless, primitive and unsubstantiated bogus stories, which are made up – sometimes by high-ranking US officials, that Russia didn’t fulfill its obligations.”
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