Sergei Lavrov

"LandepNews"

Sergei Lavrov

Russian foreign minister on Monday refused to accept the idea of imposing a deadline on the implementation of the six-point plan put forward by Kofi Annan, a move that was demanded by the 83 member states of the group “Friends of Syria” during the meeting last weekend.

Speaking during a visit in Armenia, Lavrov said that ultimata and deadlines rarely produce any effects. He added that only the United Nations Security Council was entitled to put time restrictions on Bashar al-Assad’s implementation of the plan. Russia holds a veto in the UNSC, which it already used twice, in October last year and in February 2012.

He explained that Annan has a mandate and that only the UNSC can determine who and how complies with the demand to implement the plan. The Friends of Syria group, which gathered in Istanbul over the weekend decided to recognize the Syrian National Council as the only representative of the Syrian people, thus considering formally that the Syrian incumbent government was no longer considered legitimate.

The group also focused on making sure that the people of Syria receive the message that the Friends of Syria does not abandon them and supports financially the Free Syrian Army of defectors from the regular army.

The Friends of Syria announced that they would pay the salaries of the soldiers in the Free Syrian Army, a move that is expected to convince others to join the troops of the rebels.

The group, which comprises France, the United States, France and Britain from the West, and the Arab states, also demanded that Bashar al-Assad be offered a deadline to implement this plan, which shows that the assurances of the president of Syria carry little value in the eyes of the nations that support the people in Syria, which have been fighting against the regime for more than a year.

The demand is supported by factions of the opposition, which do not believe the commitment for peace of Bashar al-Assad, considering that he is only stalling for time so that he may put down the rebellion in the meantime.

The Syrian government announced over the weekend that the attacks on Syrian state has ended and that the pullback of the troops from the cities and towns can begin in accordance to the agreement with Kofi Annan.

But on Monday news surfaced about fresh clashes in Syria, the death toll being announced to be of 80 people killed over the weekend.

Lavrov urged the international community to impose the same demand on both the government and the rebels to hold fire and end violence. Lavrov said that Russia wanted to be friends of both sides in the country, referring to past support for the regime in Damascus.

He also criticized the decision to support logistically and financially the rebels in Syria, saying that this decision contradicts the goals of peace settlement in Syria. The United States and Turkey announced that they would offer Syrian rebels “non-lethal” communications and medical support. Later in the week, Britain agreed to offer 500,000 euros to the rebels in “non-lethal aids.”

Russia has been a staunch supporter of the Syrian regime and vetoed two UNSC resolutions on the grounds that they were demanding that the president Assad step down and end violence.

Russia opposed the pressure on the regime and demanded that the rebels receive the same kind of ultimata as the regime, and be treated as responsible for what had happened in the country over the past year.

The United Nations estimates that more than 9,000 people were killed and about a million people were displaced by the violent action of the Syrian army.

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