UNITED NATIONS, December 3 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia has offered its partners in the UN Security Council a very tight and meaningful schedule in December, when Moscow will be chairing this important international body responsible for maintaining international peace and security. As the Russian permanent representative at the UN Vitaly Churkin told the media on Friday, the Security Council will hold 18 open sessions, 11 briefings and five meetings, at which resolutions will be adopted, as well as 20 consultations behind closed doors. The Russian delegation believes that in December there will be adopted ten resolutions, several statements by the SC president and also statements for the press.
The work to implement the program began on Friday, when the Council adopted a resolution to extend for three months the mandate of the UN stabilization mission in Libya.
On Monday, December 5, the Council will adopt a resolution imposing sanctions against Eritrea. In addition, in its December plan there is a briefing on the situation in Iraq, the work of the international criminal tribunals for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, preparations for the December presidential election in Cote d’Ivoire, the activities of the UN mission in Cyprus, and the situations in Somalia and Sudan. The Security Council will discuss the fate of Kuwaiti POWs, hear reports on sanctions against Iran, and hold a briefing on the situation in Yemen. The SC will complete the substantive part of its work on December 22 with consultations on the situation in Libya and a report by the committee on sanctions against that country.
Churkin said the theme of Syria was absent from the December agenda because none of the 14 partners in the SC had raised that topic in the course of bilateral consultations that preceded the adoption of the program. "We have taken a very consistent position in relation to Syria since the start of the crisis,” he said. “We believe that the international community's role should be to promote a dialogue, and this is precisely what Russia has been doing in its contacts with the Syrian authorities, the opposition and the Arab League. We believe that the Arab League still has a unique opportunity to play a constructive role in the situation in Syria and that the chance of mediation between the government and the opposition has not been lost yet. "
At the same time, he called "counterproductive" the LAS’s economic sanctions against Syria and expressed concern over their possible negative impact on both Syria and the Arab world in general.
The Russian ambassador in contrast cited the example of Yemen, where "perhaps for the past few months more blood has been shed than in Libya," but where the international community in every way "promoted the dialogue and negotiations." He recalled that the UN Security Council had adopted a resolution on Yemen, which "has much in common with the Russian-Chinese draft resolution on Syria, which was not supported by other Security Council members, who expressed no interest in it."
"In the case of Yemen, the international community should take pride in the awareness that even in a situation of very serious bloodshed and conflict it managed to achieve so much,” said Churkin. “Why cannot we do the same with regard to Syria?".