Syria rebels can't sway Russia
July 11, 2012
The Syrian National Council (SNC) said Russia was sticking to its non-intervention policy and its refusal to call for Assad to quit, after talks with the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov.
"We have not seen a development in the Russian position. I was here one year ago and the position has not changed," Burhan Ghalioun, SNC executive committee member and its former chief told reporters.
While Russia wanted to know if there were any "prospects" for a united position among the fragmented Syrian opposition groups, the SNC made it clear that Russia's favored solution, which would include Assad's regime in any political transition, was out of the question.
"We confirm, in the name of the Syrian opposition, that there cannot be talk of a solution until Assad quits power," group leader Abdelbaset Sieda told reporters after the meeting. "Russia has a different position on this issue," he added.
Sieda said the best option would be for the UN to intervene, but both Russia and China have twice blocked UN resolutions condemning Assad's government. Activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March last year.
On Tuesday, Russia proposed a UN Security Council resolution that would extend the UN observer mission in the country but did not contain any threat of sanctions against Syria or action against Assad.
France has already dismissed the proposal as "below the expectations of most of the international community."
Possibilty of transitional government
UN and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan briefed the Security Council on Wednesday. He said Assad had discussed the possibility of forming a transitional government and that Assad had "offered a name" for an interlocutor.
"And I indicated that I wanted to know a bit more about the individual, so we are at that stage," Annan told reporters.
On Tuesday, Annan said he hoped to include Iran in any solution to the crisis, a move dismissed by the US in very blunt language.
"I don't think anybody with a straight face could argue that Iran has had a positive impact on developments in Syria," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Tuesday.
China said on Wednesday that it welcomes Annan's suggestion to include regional players like Iran.
ng/sej (AP, AFP, Reuters)