MOSCOW, May 28 (Itar-Tass) — Russia is concerned that the peace plan of UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is fulfilled insufficiently, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday in his comments on Friday’s assault in Syria’s Houla, an area northwest of the central city of Homs.
“We deal with the situation, when the two parties had a hand in the tragedy,” he said. “Innocent people, including women and children, died.”
This area was controlled by militants, but was surrounded by the governmental troops, the diplomat said.
Moscow and London have common goals in the fulfillment of the Kofi Annan plan, Lavrov said.
“We are deeply concerned that the Kofi Annan plan is fulfilled insufficiently. There is progress as concerns the reduction in violence, but the outbursts like those in Houla confirm that we are still far from the goals we’d set,” he said.
“When it became known about the tragedy, members of the UN Security Council decided to actively respond, we insisted that a special session of the UN Security Council should be convened and not simply a decision that will later be e-mailed should be taken. Our initiative was supported and the Security Council held extraordinary consultations,” Lavrov said.
The diplomat underlined that Moscow insisted on investigating the tragedy.
“Our position is fixed in a press release coordinated at the UN Security Council,” Lavrov said. “The document highlights the responsibility of the Syrian government for the fulfillment of Kofi Annan’s plan as concerns the non-use of military hardware. But it also envisages the opposition’s responsibility not to use violence.”
The tragedy in Houla was one of the bloodiest events in Syria’s 15-month-old uprising. According to the United Nations, 32 children under 10 were among the dead.