Kremlin warns West against bypassing UN on Syria

RUSSIA: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday cautioned against attempts to circumvent the authority of the United Nations as the West seeks to secure Moscow’s support in the Syria crisis.

“There’s a need to eliminate any loopholes allowing (nations) to act in circumvention of the authority of the Security Council and use force without its approval,” Medvedev told a European security conference in Moscow.

“Such attempts are regularly made under various guises,” he told the conference attended by European dignitaries.

“The reasoning is simple, we hear it regularly. We can’t agree within theUnited Nations. This means it is imperfect or policies of certain states are imperfect.

“Then we will agree to act unilaterally for the sake of peace, for the sake of democracy. Where is the priority of international law here?” Moscow, he added, has been increasingly hearing “ultimatum-like statements containing threats of armed outside interference.” “I believe them to be very dangerous. This tendency is simply unacceptable,” he said in televised remarks.

The UN Security Council has seen Russia regularly wrangling with its Western partners over international hot spots, most recently Libya and Syria.

Western powers have urged Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council with veto powers, to use its influence with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to persuade it to end a deadly crackdown on protesters.

Russia had blocked two resolutions on Syria, but earlier this week backed a Western-drafted statement that called on Assad to work toward a cessation of hostilities and a democratic transition.

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan will travel this weekend to Moscow to discuss the crisis with president-elect Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, his spokesman said in Geneva. AFP