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Russian-Chinese draft resolution on Syria ready, open to suggestions - FM

Russia “is ready to work on its basis and discuss all other alternative suggestions”

MOSCOW, December 5 (Itar-Tass) —— A Russian-Chinese draft resolution on Syria is ready and Moscow is open to alternative suggestions, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said.

“Discussions on Syria continue in the U.N. Security Council all the time and we keep our draft at hand. We are actualising it constantly,” Bogdanov told Itar-Tass on Monday, December 5.

He noted that Security Council partners “are aware of the draft”.

Russia “is ready to work on its basis and discuss all other alternative suggestions”, he added.

Events in Syria are a matter of concern to Moscow “for good reasons”: “people are dying on all sides. Unfortunately, there is violence on all sides as well. But it’s a fact that people die every day,” the diplomat said.

“Something must be done, and Russia is exerting real efforts in order to solve problems constructively, including in the Security Council,” he said.

The Russian-Chinese draft resolution is ready and if Security Council partners wish to work on it, “we do not object and are ready for such work”, Bogdanov said.

At the same time, Russia hopes that the Syrian problem will be solved within the “Arab family” without turning to the U.N. Security Council.

“If the Syrians themselves as one of the LAS [League of Arab States] founders and their Arab brothers agree on how to tackle [the problem], that would be the best solution,” the diplomat said.

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