Moscow sees elements of blackmail in the West's position on continuing the UN Security Council mandate on the work of the international observer mission in Syria, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.
"To our great distress, we see elements of blackmail. They tell us, if you don't give us an agreement on accepting the [UN Security Council] resolution on Article 7 of the United Nations, then we will refuse to prolong the UN Observer Mission mandate," Lavrov said.
Moscow thinks such an approach "is absolutely counterproductive and dangerous because to use the observers as bargaining chips is inadmissable," Lavrov said.
