You're reading: Russia tells Brahimi attacking Syria would destabilise region

Russia told U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi that attacking Syria to punish the government for the alleged use of poison gas would destabilise the country and the region, the Foreign Ministry said on Aug. 28. 

In a telephone call on Aug. 27, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Brahimi that “attempts at a military solution will lead only to the further destabilisation of the situation in (Syria) and the region,” a ministry statement said.

The United States and its allies are gearing up for a probable military strike to punish President Bashar al-Assad, whom they blame for a alleged chemical attack last week that activists said killed hundreds of people as they slept.

U.N. Security Council member Russia, a major arms supplier to Assad and his most powerful diplomatic ally in the conflict, says rebels may have carried out the gas attack to provoke outside military intervention.

In a separate phone conversation on Tuesday, Lavrov rejected U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s assertion that the government was to blame.

Lavrov called for a “detailed and in-depth exchange of information” on all alleged use of chemical arms.

Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said late on Tuesday it had evacuated 89 people who wanted to leave Syria, including 75 Russian citizens, on a flight from Latakia to Moscow. It said the ministry has flown 730 people out of Syria this year.