Efforts underway to justify Syria meddling: Lavrov

Efforts underway to justify Syria meddling: Lavrov
Sat Jan 18, 2014 09:10:11

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has charged that there are attempts underway to justify foreign intervention in Syria, including no-fly zones, under the pretext of humanitarian assistance.

“Attempts are made, including through UN mechanisms, to build up tension around the humanitarian situation in Syria in order to create another pretext to push forward the idea of a so-called humanitarian corridors, no-fly zones and, eventually, to justify a humanitarian intervention,” said the top Russian diplomat on Friday during a joint press conference in Moscow with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem.

At the same press event, meanwhile, the Syrian foreign minister openly blamed the United States of following double standards on the Syria crisis and promoting terrorism in the war-ravaged Arab state.

The war rhetoric against Syria first gained momentum on August 21, 2013, when the Takfiri militants operating inside the country, along with and the foreign-sponsored Syrian opposition groups, claimed that over a thousand people had been killed in what they alleged as a government chemical attack on the outskirts of Damascus.

Damascus, however, categorically rejected the accusation as part of a scheme to draw in foreign military intervention.

Nevertheless, a number of Western countries, particularly the United States, France, and the UK, made hasty attempts through a publicity campaign to promote military action against Syria.

According to the United Nations, more than four million Syrians will be forced out of their homes in 2014 by the continuing, foreign-backed war in the country, which has so far killed more than 100,000 people.

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