WEST has ‘no appetite’ for Syria intervention - Russia

RUSSIA: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he believed Western powers had no desire to intervene in the Syrian conflict.

“I have a feeling that no one has any appetite for external intervention,” Lavrov told journalists travelling with him on a flight to Moscow from an EU-Russia summit in Brussels, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.

“I even have the feeling that they are praying for Russia and China to continue blocking permission for external intervention. Because if there is such a decision, they will have to act, and no one is ready to act,” he said.

Lavrov reiterated Russia's opposition to any intervention, citing UN Security Council resolutions that NATO used to justify military strikes in Libya.

“We are convinced that the UN Security Council must not take any more ambiguous decisions, after our partners behaved so abominably over the resolution on Libya,” he said.

Syria still in 'control' of chemical weapons

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Syrian regime was still in control of chemical weapons stockpiled at several locations in the conflict-ravaged country.

“So far according to our information, which correlates with Western data, the weapons are under control,” he told journalists as he flew back to Moscow from an EU-Russia summit in Brussels, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

“The Syrian authorities have concentrated these stockpiles in one or two centres. Previously they were scattered around the country,” he said.

President Bashar al-Assad's regime is doing all it can to ensure the weapons are secure, Lavrov said. “Our American colleagues acknowledge that the main threat is if (the chemical weapons) are seized by the insurgents,” he added.

“For us this is very serious. We check every rumour that concerns chemical weapons.” The United States said earlier this month it had intelligence showing that the regime was considering using its chemical weapons. US President Barack Obama led international warnings to Assad over the arsenal but Damascus insisted it would not use the weapons against its own people.

AFP