Western countries are insisting on removing the no-use of force statement from the UN resolution on Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
“They strongly insist on removing a phrase from the resolution that nothing can justify the use of force,” Lavrov said, adding “the approach of our western colleagues is one-sided.”
The minister said that if one of the countries decided to attack Syria, Russia would not be able to prevent it.
The attack on Syria will not be approved by the UN which leaves the attackers fully responsible for their deeds, Lavrov said.
Russia, among the United States, Great Britain, China and France has the right to veto any UN decision.
Lavrov also said that China supported the Russian position that any UN-backed decision on Syria cannot include statements allowing the use of force towards Syrian authorities.
On Tuesday, Russia circulated a draft of the United Nations Security Council’s resolution on Syria, its third since December, but Western diplomats remained unimpressed, dismissing it as “small tweaks” and “playing for time.”
The revised draft incorporated some proposals proposed by Western countries but still avoids promoting any direct pressure on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom the United States and the European Union accuse of waging a bloody war on political dissent.
The document includes France’s call on the Syrian government to “cease all violence [and] release all those arrested due to the recent incidents” and also a joint proposal by France and Portugal calling on Syria to let international media and humanitarian organizations into the country.
But it also reiterates “the need to resolve the current crisis in Syria peacefully, ruling out any military intervention from outside,” a point that Russia has long been insisting on.
