MOSCOW, August 26 (RIA Novosti) – Military intervention in Syria would be a “most brazen violation of international legislation” if held without the UN’s backing, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday.
“Paris and London are both calling for the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria even without approval from the UN Security Council. This is a very dangerous, slippery slope,” Sergei Lavrov told journalists in Moscow.
Britain and France, as well as the US and Turkey, have said they are considering an attack on the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which they accuse of using chemical weapons against the rebels it has been fighting since 2011. Assad denies the accusations and blamed a gas attack that allegedly took place last Wednesday on the insurgents.
The Syrian crisis can only be resolved through political reconciliation, Lavrov said.
Russia will continue to push for an international conference on Syria – the so-called Geneva 2 – that is to bring representatives of both Assad and the opposition to the negotiation table, Lavrov said.
He conceded that the current plan to hold the conference in September is “not realistic” anymore, but gave no new prospective date for the event.
US Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed that Washington still supports the idea of the Geneva 2 talks and is working to convince the Syrian opposition to participate, added Lavrov, who spoke to Kerry by telephone on Sunday.
