Konstantin Kosachyov

"LandepNews"

Konstantin Kosachyov

Russia explained on Wednesday its position toward the European-drafted resolution it vetoed at the United Nations Security Council a day before, while Turkey announced that it intended to impose sanctions on Syria regardless of the decision made by the UN.
Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the lower house’s foreign affairs committee, said in a phone interview on Wednesday that Russia “has a feeling” that some Western countries are ready to use external pressure, including military force, to change the regime in some countries, including Syria.
Russia will not allow this thing to happen, assured Kosachyov, adding that this cannot be permitted to become the norm for international relations because one side has military power.
The American ambassador to the UN Susan Rice called the Russian decision to veto the resolution a “slap in the face,” adding that the UN has failed in its moral duty to protect the innocent people of Syria, who, in her opinion, were being killed by a “desperate, cruel dictator.”
Rice said that those who opposed the resolution would rather sell weapons to Syria than to protect the people of this country that were being “massacred,” alluding to the arms contracts Russia has with Assad’s regime.
Russia abstained during the vote on the resolution that condemned the regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi in Libya, and has systematically criticized the NATO for overstepping the mandate it received to protect civilians and seeking to help the rebels topple the president in stead.
Kremlin warned against any use of similar force to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, and consequently vetoed the resolution draft that was warning Assad that measures would be taken unless he ended the bloody crackdown on the dissenters.
Russian foreign minister spokesman said that his country had warned on various occasion that what happened to the resolution on Libya, and the way it was used to remove Muammar al-Qaddafi could not be allowed to become a model of the Western coalitions.
He also complained that the Russian concerns about the resolution on Syria have been systematically ignored leaving the Russian Federation no way out but to oppose it altogether.
In March, prime minister Vladimir Putin said that the Western countries were on crusade against Libya, accusing NATO countries of waging strikes all over the country after they pocketed billions in contracts with Qaddafi.
Kosachyov said that the resolution on Libya taught Russia a lot about the unprecise language of the resolution and how it could be used to overstep mandate. That is why, he added, such a situation will not be repeated with Syria.
Analysts warn that as Putin is ready to make a comeback at the highest office in Kremlin, Russian stance on international topics like Iran, Syria and even North Korea could be harder than it is now with Medvedev as president.
Russia has strong ties with Syria since the Soviet era, when the Ba’ath party that rules Syria was the Arab version of the Communist parties of Europe. In the port of Tartous Russia has the only outpost in Mediterranean.
The Eurasian country has also $3 billion arms contracts with the authorities in Damascus. Some of the Russian decision-makers said that Medvedev was responsible for the abstention of Russia when the resolution on Libya was voted and pledge that the situation would not repeat its this time.
Besides, Russia and China are countries where human rights observance is not the strong suit, where “political pragmatism” sometimes comes before the strictness of observing the rights of the citizens.
As Russia is defending the regime of Assad, Turkish Prime Minister seizes the opportunity to foster his project of turning his country into the “heart of the Arab world,” by supporting the cause of the Syrians.

Erdogan In South Africa

Speaking in South Africa, where he is visiting, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that even though the European-backed resolution failed at the UN Security Council, Turkey and other Western countries are ready to take action.
He announced that his country would impose its own set of sanctions on the neighboring country. Referring to the resolution at the UN Erdogan said that it should have been a warning for the leaders of Syria.
He went on to say that the Syrian people do not have to endure a merciless, shameless, tyrannical regime that “bombs its own country from the sea.”
He reminded the South Africans that they were in the position to fight for their freedom from domestic oppression, stressed out that his heart was with those who fight for freedom, but declined to comment on the fact that South Africa abstained from the vote on the resolution.
Last month Turkey intercepted a shipload of weapons heading to Syria, and has opened its territory to refugees fleeing from Syria. Erdogan is expected to visit one of the camps as soon as he returns from South Africa, a move that would happen at the same time with the military drill called Yildirim of the Turkish Armed Forces, which is programmed to be launched at the border with Syria.
The Syrian National Council, the organization that comprises different factions of the Syrian opposition, was harbored by Turkey, where it held its meetings.
Turkey also provided shelter for a colonel, Riad al-Asaad, who defected in July from the army and founded the Free Syrian Army, an armed group of the opposition.
Al-Asaad told the Turkish officials that the operation in Rastan, when 3,000 people were detained by security, was meant to capture him. He said that there are about 10,000 defectors from the Syrian army.

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