Posted on 09/24/2013 1:59:53 AM PDT by TexGrill
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believes that the United States is "beginning to blackmail" Russia into accepting a UN resolution on Syria.
American diplomats are pushing for a Security Council resolution stemming from Chapter 7 of the UN Charter and are threatening to wind down work in the Hague's Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons if Russia doesn't agree, the minister said in an interview with Channel One on Sunday.
"It's a complete departure from what we agreed on with [U.S. Secretary of State] John Kerry — first a decision by the OPCW and only then a resolution supporting that decision by the UN Security Council, but not referencing Chapter Seven," Lavrov continued.
Mention of Chapter Seven could open the door for the international community to intervene militarily in Syria, a possibility that Russia has vigorously opposed.
The basic disagreement that has complicated negotiations since Kerry and Lavrov's breakthrough agreement on Sept. 14 remains: while Western countries claim that the Syrian government was behind the late August chemical attack outside Damascus, Russia insists that it could have been perpetrated by insurgents aiming to provoke foreign military intervention.
The Syrian government has reportedly given Russian diplomats evidence of insurgents' involvement in the attack, which Lavrov said is "completely technical" and currently under examination by Russian specialists.
Russia's head diplomat repeated doubts about the impartiality of the UN report on the chemical attack, saying that there were additional witnesses who had not been questioned, including journalists who had spoken with insurgents claiming to have received weapons from abroad.
(Excerpt) Read more at themoscowtimes.com ...
Sergei Lavrov/John Kerry...Communist vs Communist, everybody loses!
Who ever thunk the bigger commie would be the US politician
No secret the Syrian oppo has been gassing folks. And...Dems told us during Iraq War Syria did not have Saddam’s gas and chem weapons
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