Moscow slams Western draft resolution on Syria

The Western draft resolution on Syria could provoke a Libyan scenario in the country, Russian Prime Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.

He underscored that Russia is opposed to Syria sanctions.

“The Western resolution is fraught with the repetition of a Libyan scenario although its co-authors are trying to convince us otherwise,” he said.

The main problem with the document is that it lays the blame squarely at President Bashar Assad’s doorstep, which Lavrov described as a “one sided approach.”

On October 4, Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution that urged the Syrian regime to immediately stop using violence against protesters or face “targeted measures.”

The draft resolution, sponsored by France with Britain, Germany and Portugal, was supported by nine of 15 Security Council members. Four others – Brazil, India, South Africa and Lebanon – abstained.

President Assad said in late August that Washington and its European partners were hindering the political changes that represent the only way out of Syria’s crisis.