RF, China new force acting for benefit of Syrian people – adviser

MOSCOW, October 6 (Itar-Tass) — Damascus lauds the position of Russia and China and their right to veto the new U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria for the benefit of the people, the Syrian president’s adviser, Bouthaina Shaaban, said on Thursday.

“The fact that Russia and China use their right to veto the U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria for the benefit of the people allowed us to feel that there was a force, which believed in justice, neutrality, culture and civilisation,” the adviser said.

“The new force occurred on the international arena. It called for the reforms in Syria. We are following this way and we are moving towards the reforms and pluralism,” she added.

The Syrian president’s adviser voiced concern over the fact that certain countries provided funding and supplied arms to terrorist groups, which existed on the territory of the country. In her words, “this seriously threatens the life of ordinary people.” “Western countries’ position facilitates the activity of terrorist groups,” the adviser stressed.

According to Shaaban, the opposition of the country and the public have been invited to take part in a dialogue. But the majority among the opposition refused to participate in it. “Representatives of most opposition movements were involved in joint conferences and consultations under the chairmanship of [Syrian Vice-President] Farouq al-Sharaa. Others ignored them. I don’t understand what they hope for by refusing to take part in the dialogue,” she explained.

On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Russia is ready for further work with the U.N. Security Council due to a new draft resolution on Syria that was prepared jointly with China.

The resolution, which was blocked earlier, “was based on means of easing tension and differed by the ultimatum against Damascus, and threatened to use sanctions on the Syrian authorities”, the ministry said.

“Such approach runs counter the peaceful settlement of the crisis on the basis of all-Syrian national dialogue and could incite a large-scale conflict and destabilisation in the region as a whole,” the ministry said.

On October 4, Russia and China blocked efforts of other major powers to pass a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria, with a dramatic dual veto thwarting a call for an immediate halt to the crackdown in Syria against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad. Nine of the 15-member council countries, including the United States, voted in favour of adopting the resolution.

“From the very beginning the Russian Federation took intensive constructive efforts to work out an effective reaction from the U.N. Security Council to the dramatic events in Syria. Over a month ago Russian and Chinese partners prepared a draft resolution, which was amended later due to the concerns of other Security Council members. It was based on the respect of national sovereignty, Syria’s territorial integrity and the non-interference into its affairs, the repudiation of confrontation and an equal and substantial dialogue in order to ensure civil peace and national accord by carrying out social, economic and political reforms in the country,” the ministry said.

“Our proposals on the need for the Syrian opposition to dissociate itself from extremists and on the inadmissibility to interfere into internal affairs by military means were ignored. And due to the sad ‘Libyan lesson’ this cannot not disquiet, especially in light of the statements saying the implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions on Libya by the North Atlantic Alliance is a ‘model’ that means the gross abuse of U.N. Security Council resolutions in order to carry out unilateral plans on neutralising unwanted regimes,” the ministry said.

“We warned several times that we would counter the attempts to turn the Libyan scenario into a norm because this can cause damage to the authority and the reputation of the U.N. Security Council. We believe it important that all members of the world community respected the principle of supremacy of international law in full, without exemptions and double standards,” the ministry said.

“We do not advocate Bashar Al-Assad’s regime. We believe that it is unacceptable to continue violence. We condemn the suppression of peaceful demonstrations. But we cannot close eyes to speculations by the radical opposition to protest actions of the part of the Syrian population. It does not hide its extremist plans by using open terror tactics,” the ministry said.

“Russia continues the exacting work with Damascus. We call the Syrian leadership to carry out reforms as soon as possible, free all detainees, promote a dialogue with the political opposition, make wide access to the country by international mass media, and step up interaction with the LAS. This has yielded results: the reforms, even late, have started to be realised,” the ministry said.

“However, we call on the opposition not to give up the participation in the national dialogue as an effective method to coordinate democratic reforms and refute a military scenario. We will continue to explain our position during the upcoming meetings with the Syrian opposition,” the ministry said.