MOSCOW — Russia chided its longtime ally Syria on July 24 over its threat to use chemical weapons in case of a foreign attack, but Moscow gave no sign it was abandoning President Bashar Assad's regime, despite growing international condemnation over the violence in the Arab country.
Syria is Russia’s last remaining ally in the Middle East and hosts the only naval base Moscow has outside the former Soviet Union. Russia has protected Syria from international sanctions and supplied it with weapons amid an escalating civil war.
On
July 23, Syria threatened to unleash its chemical and biological weapons
if it faces a foreign attack — its first-ever acknowledgement it
possesses weapons of mass destruction.
In a statement that reflected a degree of irritation with Assad, the Russian Foreign Ministry reminded Syria that it had ratified a global convention banning the use of chemical weapons. It added that Russia expects Syria to “unfailingly honor its international obligations.”
The statement follows earlier Russian rebukes of Assad’s heavy-handed use of force and slow pace of reforms.
But despite occasional criticism, Russia
has staunchly refused to back international calls for the Syrian
strongman to step down, saying that foreign players have no right to
determine the nation’s political future, and that it must be decided by
Syrians themselves.
A 16-month uprising in Syria has morphed into a
civil war has killed more than 19,000, according to the Britain-based
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The escalating fighting is also
feeding fears that Syria’s war could spill across borders and spark a
regional conflagration.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made it clear Monday that Moscow
would not join those pressuring Assad to step down. “If the Syrian
leadership is ousted from power by unconstitutional means, the
leadership and the opposition will trade places and the civil war will
continue,” Putin said.
On Thursday, Russia
and China vetoed a Western-backed United Nations resolution threatening
Assad’s regime with sanctions — the third such double veto of a U.N.
motion addressing the crisis. The next day, the U.N. Security Council
unanimously approved a resolution renewing the 300-strong U.N. observer
force in Syria for another 30 days.
Russia’s
U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in an interview with TV host
Charlie Rose to be broadcast Tuesday night on PBS that Syrian President
Bashar Assad is not a “stooge” awaiting for orders from Moscow.
“This is a misperception that he is sitting there like waiting for the phone call from Moscow to tell him what to do,” he said. “This is not the case.”
Churkin
said Assad has shown no interest in stepping down and if he did, it
could aggravate the situation because he would most likely be replaced
by even “more hard-line people in his entourage.”
He urged an end
to the fighting, saying the opposition’s failure to enter into dialogue
with the government is a recipe for continued conflict which could go on
“maybe for years” with varying degrees of intensity.
