Russia urges prevention of “bloody chaos engulfing Syria” after the Obama administration approved additional arms supplies to Syrian rebels. Moscow questions the proposal for so-called ‘liberated areas’ as this may aggravate violence against civilians.
“Despite all efforts which are being taken within Russian-US
agreement reached on May 7, violence in Syria is not easing,”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aleksandr Lukashevich said
Friday.
Lukashevich recalled Tuesday’s massacre in Hatla village in
Syria’s Deir el-Zour region near Iraq, saying that there are
forces which are “interested in continuing the military
conflict.”
The attack by opposition fighters on the Shia village that has
been firmly under rebel control for more than a year claimed
lives of up to 60 Shia Muslims, including old people and
children.
“They are conducting terrorist attacks that kill innocent
civilians, add fuel to the fire of the conflict, organizing
confessional cleansing,” he said, referring to the recent
violence.
Shortly after the massacre a video posted online on Tuesday,
entitled ‘The storming and cleansing of Hatla’, showed fighters
waving the black Salafi flag and celebrating.
However, activists denied that the killings were sectarian,
claiming that they were in response to an attack on a Free Syrian
Army checkpoint by 30 armed villagers from Hatla.
The Syrian regime accused the Al-Nusra Front, linked to Al Qaeda,
of massacring civilians.
Amid this raging violence in Syria, Moscow is confused by some
countries decision to help the opposition on the so-called
liberated territories.
“[We] would not like to think that territories are being
‘liberated’ the way it was done in Hatla,” Lukashevich said.
The statement comes hours after the Obama administration
authorized a release of at least some US arms for Syria’s rebels
as part of new military and political aid measures.
“There is little doubt that decisions on additional arms and
military equipment supplies to illegal militant groups would
drive up the level of violent confrontation and violence against
innocent civilians. Especially, given that it comes amid calls to
go further, to establish a no-fly zone over Syria to help not
with just weapons, but heavy weapons,” Lukashevich said.
At the same time, he stressed that UN’s expert group did not find
evidences proving that chemical weapons were used in Syria.
"However, the situation is alarming in this regard, especially
given the reports about arrests of insurgents with chemical
agents and even sarin gas in Turkey and Iraq,” he continued.
Separately, Syrian Ambassador to Moscow Riyad Haddad has said
that USA has been supplying rebels with arms for a long time and
“on Friday they just announced that officially.”
"Since 2011 the West, led by the United States, has supplied
weapons to terrorists in Syria, but today they just announced it
officially," he told Interfax news agency.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has insisted on peaceful solution of
the conflict and stressed its firmness in its adherence to
holding a peace conference.