Russia's contribution to UN humanitarian motion on Syria will rule out military measures
19 June 2014, 17:49 -- While Moscow has agreed to work over a United Nations Security Council's (UN SC) draft resolution on humanitarian access to Syria, authored by Australia, Jordan, Luxembourg, it warned against attempts to pass military measures in conducting humanitarian operations in that country.
'I will recall that in late May Australia, Jordan and Luxembourg, backed by western members of the UN SC proposed the initiative of passing another resolution on Syria, this time over humanitarian access. Initially, we opposed this initiative, thinking that a whole host of earlier UN SC resolutions were quite sufficient to resolve acute humanitarian problems in that country,' Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich said at a briefing in Moscow on Thursday.
'However, not wanting to see another split within the ranks of the UN SC over the Syrian dossier, and guided by the desire to speed up the procedure of delivering humanitarian aid proper to the needy population of the Syria, we have agreed to take part in drafting the resolution,' Lukashevich said.
'Specifically, I will note the need for future transborder operations to meet the UN criteria : This first and foremost involves due respect and consideration for Syria's sovereignty and the opinion of its government in conducting humanitarian operation. Certainly, there can be no talk about any coercive measures whatsoever, including military, as provided by Chapter 7 of the UN Charter,' the diplomat stressed. In May Russia proposed its own motion on Syria but it was met with a 'politicized' reaction among the SC members.
The Syrian chemical weapons arsenal has been practically reduced to zero, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said. 'We positively assess the level of interaction between Damascus and the joint mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN in the fulfillment of relevant resolutions of the OPCW Executive Council and UN Security Council resolution 2118 in the elimination of the chemical weapons potential [of Syria], which has been practically reduced to zero,' he told a press briefing in Moscow on Thursday. 'All chemical weapons production equipment and unarmed delivery means have been destroyed and the exportation of yperite, the only ready-to-use warfare chemical agent, has been completed,' the diplomat said.
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