MOSCOW — Russia says providing assistance to Syrian opposition fighters would breach international law.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday that any foreign help to the opposition fighting President Bashar Assad’s government would represent a “gross violation” of basic principles of international law. He added that the opposition’s refusal to hold talks with Assad would “strengthen positions of extremists.”
France on Tuesday became the first Western nation to recognize a revamped Syrian opposition leadership as the only legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
Russia has been a key supporter and ally of Assad’s government, joining forces with China at the U.N. to veto sanctions against Syria over its crackdown on an uprising that has killed more than 36,000 people since it began in March 2011.
