Lavrov: US position on Syria directly endorses terrorism

US position on Syria directly endorses terrorism - Lavrov

Washington’s reaction to blasts in Damascus is a downright justification of terrorism, slams Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. US State Department announced that terror acts in Syria are not surprising in light of the Assad regime’s actions.

“This is direct endorsement of terrorism. How are we supposed to understand that?” Sergey Lavrov shared his astonishment at a press conference in Moscow. “This is a sinister position, I cannot find words to express our attitude towards that.”


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Last Edited by SHR on 07/29/2012 01:35 PM

The western countries are encouraging the Syrian opposition’s armed struggle against the Bashar al-Assad government.

More blood will be shed as a result, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said following his meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister, Koichiro Gemba, in Sochi earlier today.


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Last Edited by SHR on 07/29/2012 01:36 PM

MOSCOW, (SANA) – Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, stressed on Saturday that the West and some Arab states are encouraging the Syrian opposition to fight against the Syrian Government.

At a press conference in Sochi, Lavrov said that the UN Human Rights Council has offered evidence confirming that the armed groups and the opposition are practicing execution and torture, adding that therefore "pressure must be put on everyone."

"Unfortunately, our Western partners prefer to do something a bit different and essentially, along with some countries neighboring Syria, encourage, support and direct the armed fight against the regime," he said.

"The price of all this is still more blood," he added.


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Last Edited by SHR on 07/29/2012 01:36 PM

The sooner the world realizes we are the terrorists, the faster the world can stop us from taking over the world.

Instead of handling our problems here at home, we are empire building in the rest of the world.

Fortunately for those of us who are at odds with what our own governments are doing in our name the Russians (and, no doubt, the Chinese) know EXACTLY what the situation is and are doing a very good job of stopping a bloodbath.

Mr Lavrov is very articulate, even in English which he speaks fluently. I'm sure most people here would feel a bit better if they spent a few coffee breaks searching out a few of his previous quotes.

MOSCOW, (SANA)-The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Russia will not support a draft resolution on Syria at the UN General Assembly which only holds the Syrian government responsible for what is going on in Syria .

"The draft resolution on Syria presented by a number of Arab states to the UN General Assembly is unilateral, unbalanced and it urges the opposition to continue its armed conflict against the Syrian government," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement quoted by MOSCOW News Agency.

"The draft resolution deviates the plan of the UN Envoy Kofi Annan.. it suggests him to concentrate on achieving a political transition in Syria and this mission was not assigned to him," the statement added.

It said "Moscow sees that this document with its current form doesn't help achieve stability or stop violence in Syria, so it will not support it."

Putin Regrets Annan's Resignation

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed regret over the resignation of the UN Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan from his post, hoping the international efforts will continue to settle the crisis in Syria.

Putin told journalists at a press conference concluding his visit to London "Annan is an honest person, brilliant diplomat.. I regret his resignation, but I hope the international community will continue its efforts aiming at stopping violence in Syria."

Mazen Eyon

[link to 208.43.232.81]

Insurgents have killed at least 16 civilians, mostly Alawites and Christians, near the western Syrian city of Homs.


The massacre occurred at the Jandar Resort on the outskirts of the city on Tuesday, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.

Earlier in the day, insurgents carried out mortar attacks on several neighborhoods in Homs, damaging residential areas and injuring many people.

Syrian troops also attacked the insurgents in the city, killing or capturing many of the foreign-backed armed men.

In addition, there is still fighting in the cities of Aleppo and Damascus.

The army stormed insurgents’ hideouts in the Old Damascus area on Tuesday, capturing a number of armed men and confiscating their weapons.

Also on Tuesday, the Syrian Army attacked insurgents in the al-Asileh neighborhood of Aleppo, killing and injuring 150 insurgents. In addition, insurgents’ vehicles equipped with machine guns were damaged in the operation.

Abdul Jabbar al-Oqeidi, the leader of the Aleppo military council of the self-proclaimed Free Syrian Army, was also killed in an operation conducted by the Syrian Army on the same day.

In some neighborhoods of the city, foreign-backed gunmen have taken civilians hostage and there are reports that they plan to use them as human shields, while the army continues to clear Aleppo of insurgents.

Meanwhile, Syria's General Cinema Institute announced on Tuesday that Alawite film director Bassam Mohieddin was killed near his home on the outskirts of Damascus on Sunday.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Damascus says outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists are the driving factor behind the unrest and deadly violence while the opposition accuses the security forces of being behind the killings.

The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the armed militants are foreign nationals.

MHB/AS/HGL
[link to www.presstv.ir]

Three Iranians abducted by armed gangs in Syria killed

Three of the Iranian pilgrims, who were kidnapped by armed insurgents near the Syrian capital of Damascus, have been killed, Reuters reports.


The so-called Free Syrian army has threatened to kill the rest of the pilgrims if the Syrian military does not stop attacking them.

Forty-eight Iranian pilgrims, who were traveling on a bus from Damascus International Airport to the shrine of Hazrat Zainab (AS) on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, were abducted by insurgents on August 4.


The insurgents who have abducted the Iranian pilgrims had claimed that the hostages are members of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) by simply referring to their military discharge cards.

An informed official at Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday vehemently dismissed the reports by certain Arabic-language news networks that the Iranian pilgrims were military members.

On Saturday, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi called his Turkish and Qatari counterparts Ahmet Davutoglu and Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabir Al Thani and asked for their assistance in securing the release of the hostages.

The Qatari and Turkish foreign ministers promised to do their best to bring about the liberation of the Iranian pilgrims.

According to a Qatari source, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are sending weapons and communications equipment to the insurgents in Syria via a base that is located in the southern Turkish city of Adana, about one hundred kilometers from Syria’s border, to fight against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.


The Iranians were kidnapped in Syria days after seven Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) members were abducted in Libya.

On July 31, The Libyan Red Crescent (LRC) said in a statement that unidentified gunmen kidnapped a seven-member IRCS delegation after they left the headquarters of the LRC in Benghazi.


The Iranian delegation went to Libya at the invitation of the Libyan Red Crescent to discuss various prospects for cooperation in the field of humanitarian assistance.

SF/SS/AZ

[link to www.presstv.ir]

War on terror = war on Amerika

Those are heavy statements, but I am waiting to see what Russia does. Do they use covert tactics to counter? Or do they just screw with the US? Or do they stand by and wait it out?

Bump

US responsible for hostages in Syria: Iran

Published Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Iran said Tuesday that it was holding the United States responsible for the lives of 48 of its citizens taken hostage in Syria, following an unconfirmed report by a Syrian rebel group that three of them had been killed by shelling.

The foreign ministry, which transmitted its message through the Swiss embassy in Tehran that handles US interests in the absence of Iran-US diplomatic ties, insisted the 48 were pilgrims, not Revolutionary Guards as the rebels claimed.

"Because of the United States' manifest support of terrorist groups and the dispatch of weapons to Syria, the United States is responsible for the lives of the 48 Iranian pilgrims abducted in Damascus," Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian quoted the letter as saying.

He told the official IRNA news agency that "we expect the countries that are in a way responsible for the events in Syria to take the necessary measures to ensure the safety and lives of the Iranian pilgrims and their return to Iran."

He stressed that Iran had appealed for help from both Turkey and Qatar, two governments suspected of arming and financing Syrian rebels, including Islamist insurgents.

Iran's message was issued after a Syrian rebel group, al-Baraa Brigade of the Free Syrian Army, claimed on its Facebook page that "three of the Iranian prisoners were killed in fierce shelling" by the army in Damascus on Monday.

The page said the group's leader, Abdel Nasser Shmeir, was threatening to "execute the prisoners who are proven members of the Revolutionary Guard if the shelling continues."

Iran's foreign ministry issued a statement in Arabic, cited by Iranian broadcaster al-Alam, saying it "rejects as invalid the assertions by the so-called Free Syrian Army that the three Iranian pilgrims were killed during a bombardment by the Syrian military."

The Iranians were taken hostage on Saturday as they traveled in a bus in Damascus.

The rebel group posted a video online on Sunday alleging that the Iranians were elite Revolutionary Guards on a "reconnaissance mission."

But Tehran insists they are some of the hundreds of thousands of Iranian Shia pilgrims who visit the revered Sayyida Zeinab shrine in the southeastern suburbs of Damascus each year.

Tehran is the staunchest ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces are locked in nearly 17 months of conflict with Gulf-backed rebels.

Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, said on Tuesday that "the United States and certain countries of the region are responsible for the deaths of the Iranian pilgrims, and they will receive an appropriate response at the right time."

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)

[link to english.al-akhbar.com]

West accepts terrorism when it’s politically expedient – Russian FM

Western nations accept acts of terrorism when it suits them politically, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Lavrov was commenting on a refusal by Western members of the UN Security Council to condemn recent attacks in Syria.

The Security Council has always resolved that terrorism is unacceptable, Lavrov said. But for the first time, Western member-states deviated from this position after a bombing in Damascus killed several senior security officials, he said.

According to Western nations, the bombing did not qualify as terrorism since the victims were the heads of power structures fighting against insurgents, Lavrov said, claiming he was dumbfounded by such an explanation.

Lavrov urged other members of the Security Council to condemn not only the Sunday bombing in the conflict-wracked Syrian city of Aleppo, which killed 27 people and wounded dozens, “but also a series of terrorist attacks that happened the same day in Iraq.”

“Our partners took a break – apparently, they were seeking advice from their capitals – and refused from any kind of reaction,” Lavrov said.

The silence of Western countries on the attack could indicate that their countries have changed their stance on terrorism, he said. “I’d be really glad if our partners refuted my suspicion,” Interfax cited Lavrov as saying.

Another senior Russian diplomat, deputy FM Gennady Gatilov, also accused Western nations of double standards over their refusal to condemn the Syrian terrorist attacks. “So there are ‘bad’ terrorists who should be condemned and those whose actions can go without a reaction from the international community,” he wrote on Twitter.

Earlier this week, Russia failed to secure a UN Security Council draft statement condemning the spate of September 9 attacks in Aleppo, which killed some 50 people and injured over 100.

The draft statement was circulated among Security Council members on September 10, along with a similar document on bombings in several Iraqi cities, Itar-Tass reported.

The statements said that "terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security and is unjustifiable."

Russia managed to secure agreement only for the document on the terrorist attacks in Iraq.

[link to rt.com]