you are here: Home /
 

Russia to oppose pressure on Syria in UN Resolution

By Agencies
Updated Sunday, 07 August 2011 13:08:47 - IST (UTC +5:30)

MOSCOW: - Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday it would not oppose a United Nations resolution to condemn violence in Syria as long as it refrained from sanctions and other "pressures".
The comments opened the door for progress on a possible resolution at the U.N. Security Council, of which Russia is a veto-wielding member, on a second day of consultations over how to react to fresh reports of bloodshed.
The Foreign Ministry's Middle East and North Africa Department Chief, Sergei Vershinin, said Russia was not "categorically" against adopting a resolution on Syria.
"We are not formalists, we are not categorically against anything in particular," he said.
"If there are some unbalanced items, sanctions, pressure, I think that kind of pressure is bad because we want less bloodshed and more democracy," he told reporters.
Threats from Russia and China to veto a draft resolution condemning violence in Syria deadlocked the U.N. 15-member Security Council two months ago.
Germany, however, requested a new meeting over reports of new violence. Human rights groups, witnesses and residents said at least 122 civilians have been killed since Sunday when Syrian troops stormed the city of Hama to crush protests.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said on Monday that he thought issuing a resolution would be "somewhat excessive" and that a formal statement calling for an end to violence but urging a peaceful political solution, would be "satisfactory."
President Dmitry Medvedev had strongly suggested in June that Russia would not back any resolution on Syria in the U.N. Security Council but stopped short of threatening a veto.
Moscow, a close ally of Damascus in Soviet times, currently has $4 billion worth of arms contracts with Syria, according to Russia's Vedomosti newspaper.
Russia remains wary of Western intentions in the Arab world. It abstained in March from voting on a U.N. resolution that authorised limited military intervention in Libya and has often criticised the scope of NATO's bombing campaign in that country.
Rights groups say 1,600 people have died during the five-month uprising against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. (Reporting by Thomas Grove, editing by Gareth Jones) curtsy Ruiter
()

Tags: Agencies Syria, UN resolution, Russia against pressure

  • MUMBAI: The last time Muslims and Dalits created a joint political platform in Maharashtra was in the 1980s. Led by former smuggler and don Haji Mastan, the Dalit Muslim Suraksha Mahasangh (DMSM)...

    2012-05-07 17:11:22 |
    0 comments
  • MUMBAI: Chemical analysis of a powder-like substance collected from a Byculla apartment where two suspected Pakistani 13/7 bombers stayed has proved that it is the deadly explosive RDX. The...

    2012-05-03 17:34:23 |
    0 comments
  • Srinagar : For Abdul Rashid Khan, it has been a long wait for justice. Twelve years after his father Juma Khan was allegedly picked from his house, killed in a fake encounter and dubbed a foreign...

    2012-05-03 17:30:23 |
    0 comments
  • New Delhi : The Supreme Court gave the Army full “discretion” to choose between a court martial and a criminal trial for seven officers accused of killing five persons in an encounter in...

    2012-05-03 17:27:07 |
    0 comments
  • New Delhi. Syed Ghulam Akber, member Markazi Majlis-e-Shoora (Central Advisory Council) and former Secretary Jamaat-e-Islami Hind breathed his last at Care Hospital in Hyderabad at about 1 p.m....

    2012-04-30 20:38:08 |
    0 comments
  • Government responsible for Communal Violence in Hyderabad city RSS outfits Communalizing the situation and polarizing population by developing Communal Sentiments. Introduce and pass Communal...

    2012-04-25 11:01:25 |
    0 comments
  • CAIRO - The Muslim Brotherhood's new presidential candidate, pitched into the race after its first choice was disqualified, promised on Saturday to govern in coalition and to steady Egypt after more...

    2012-04-21 23:43:42 |
    0 comments
  • ISTANBUL: Nuclear negotiators for Iran and six world powers were making encouraging progress in bridging differences that have doomed previous meetings meant to reduce fears over Tehran's atomic...

    2012-04-14 19:57:43 |
    0 comments
  • Istanbul:The negotiations set to open in Istanbul on Saturday will be the first time that Iran has formally met the world's leading powers for more than a year. Unlike during a previous round of...

    2012-04-13 23:56:09 |
    0 comments
  • CAIRO -- Thousand peoples surged into Tahrir Square on Friday to denounce the presidential campaigns of three officials who served under toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, including Omar...

    2012-04-13 23:52:22 |
    0 comments
  • Tehran: The United States, European allies and even Israel generally agree on three things about Iran's nuclear program: Tehran does not have a bomb, has not decided to build one, and is probably...

    2012-03-24 12:33:33 |
    0 comments
  • KABUL: Two Americans who were shot dead on Saturday inside the Interior Ministry in Afghanistan's capital Kabul are believed to be a colonel and a major in the US military, Afghan security sources...

    2012-02-25 21:24:55 |
    0 comments
  • DAMASCUS: The UN named its former leader Kofi Annan as special envoy for Syria on the eve of an international conference Friday aimed at pressuring the Assad regime to halt the rising spiral of...

    2012-02-24 17:07:50 |
    0 comments
  • KABUL—Afghanistan was bracing for intensifying protests, even as outrage over the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base led to the first American casualties and President Barack Obama vowed to hold...

    2012-02-24 13:12:41 |
    0 comments