More ‘bloodshed’ if West insists on Assad ouster - Russia
FRANCE: Russia on Wednesday warned that the “bloodbath” in
Syria would continue if the West stuck to its demand for President
Bashar al-Assad's ouster.
“If the position of our partners remains the departure of this leader
who they do not like, the bloodbath will continue,” Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said after talks with his French counterpart Laurent
Fabius.
The nearly 20-month conflict in Syria has killed 36,000 people
according to activists. Fabius also said France and Russia failed to
bridge their differences over Assad's role in any future transition
government. “Yes, there is a difference of assessment on the presence of
Bashar al-Assad in a transition government,” he said after a meeting of
the French and Russian foreign and defence ministers in Paris. In July,
world powers agreed in Geneva on a plan for a transition in Syria which
did not make an explicit call for Assad to quit power although the West
swiftly made clear it saw no role for him in any unity government.
However Assad's allies in Beijing and Moscow insist that it is up to
Syrians themselves to determine their future without foreign
interference.
UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi told Moscow on Monday that
what he branded a civil war in Syria was going from bad to worse after a
failed four-day truce for a Muslim holiday last week. Lavrov for his
part called on the West and regional players including Turkey to start
negotiating with Assad as well as the opposition to pave the way for a
political solution in Syria. Lavrov on Wednesday however highlighted
common positions taken by France and Russia, including the “desire to
see a stop to the conflict, the need to avert an international contagion
and the fact that the different communities need to co-exist. “We all
the forces of opposition to unite,” he said, adding that other common
stands included “maintaining the rights of minorities” and religious
equality.
The two sides also have coverging positions on other matters such as
Mali, where both permament members of the UN Security Council backed an
October 12 resolution giving West African nations 45 days to outline
plans for military intervention there.
The Security Council is pushing for regional African body ECOWAS to
prepare a military force against Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)
which is tightening its grip on the north after over-running the area in
the chaotic aftermath of a March coup. The other main topics of
Wednesday's talks were Russian concerns over a new NATO-led missile
defence shield for Europe and defence cooperation between Paris and
Moscow.
Russia flexed its nuclear muscles last week, firing dummy warheads
from planes, a submerged submarine ands an underground bunker in a show
of force coinciding with tensions between Moscow and Washington over
space defence issues. France and Russia signed a deal early last year
for the sale of four Mistral helicopter carriers to Moscow. The
long-discussed purchase was Russia's first major arms acquisition abroad
in the two decades since the fall of the Soviet Union. Defence experts
say France is also trying to sell armoured vehicles to Russia.
AFP |