UNITED NATIONS, April 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Western countries at the UN Security Council (UN SC) did not allow Russia to secure a reaction to the Syrian militants' actions in the city of Kasab, inhabited by ethnic Armenians, as well as to the shooting on the port of Latakia by armed groups, the shooting that led to a suspension of the removal of chemical weapons from the country, an official at the Russian Permanent Mission at the UN told ITAR-TASS on Thursday.
"The Elements for the Press, suggested by us about the actions of militants in Kasab and the shelling of Latakia, did not find support with Western colleagues at the UN SC," the Russian Mission official said.
The Russian-prepared draft Elements for the Press condemn "the latest attacks by Syrian opposition groups, among them those connected to al Qaeda, on the city of Kasab populated by Syrian Armenians", the official said.
Threat to elimination of Syrian chemical weapons
Earlier on Thursday, Vitaly Churkin, Russia's Permanent Representative at the UN, expressed hope that it would be possible to fix the Elements for the Press, which are not an official document of the UN SC and are read out by the UN SC President. In so doing, the diplomat said the Western members of the UN SC had blocked the adoption of a statement for the press which condemned the mortar shelling of the port of Latakia when containers with chemical weapons were being loaded onto a Danish ship and a Norwegian ship.
"They (the West) have taken up an utterly unambiguous and common attitude on both humanitarian matters, political issues, and on chemical demilitarization. They seek to put an additional pressure on the government at every opportunity and take from under any pressure those who are fighting against it, even if those are extremist and terrorist groups," the diplomat stated.
Kasab "remains a zone of fighting"
UN sources reported on Friday that the Kasab area, which is populated predominantly by Syrian Armenians, "remains a zone of fighting". UN data have it that a large proportion of Kasab residents about 1,550 families fled to Latakia where they are being given all the necessary aid.
Churkin said almost all residents fled Kasab, with the exception of a large number of old people who refused to leave the city. "Luckily, the dreadful reports about Armenians being gunned down massively found no confirmation," Russa's UN Ambassador added. He said the developmens in Kasab would be discussed without fail at a UN SC meeting on humanitarian situation in Syria. The meeting is scheduled for April 30. "We keep monitoring this (the happenings in Kasab). However, no separate discussion of the issue has been planned," the diplomat said.
Meanwhile, a source at the UN Secretariat on Thursday confirmed the receipt of a letter from Armenia's Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan who called for securing a a reaction to the actions of militants in Kasab. The Minister also demands urgent measures from Ankara t oprevent penetration of Syria by terrorists from Turkish territory.