Russia: We are not protecting Syria

Russia today insisted the government was not “protecting any regimes” as anger grew among Arab leaders over Moscow’s blocking of international pressure on Syria’s president to step down.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke out in Cairo at a heated meeting of the Arab League as UN envoy Kofi Annan met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus to mediate an end to the country’s year-long conflict. Amid the diplomatic efforts, Syrian troops were pushing ahead with a new assault on the northern region of Idlib, one of the centres of the uprising against Assad’s rule.

The gathering at the Arab League with Mr Lavrov was tense. Russia, a long-time ally of Assad, has come under intense international criticism for vetoing a draft UN resolution last month that would have pressured Mr Assad to step down - casting its vote even as the regime’s troops blasted the city of Homs in one of the bloodiest offensives yet in the year-long crackdown on the uprising.

That brought accusations that Russia – and China, which also cast a veto – were giving Mr Assad diplomatic cover to intensify a crackdown that has already killed more than 7,500 people by UN estimates. Arab countries were particularly angered by the veto because it stymied an Arab League peace plan for Syria.

“We are not protecting any regimes,” Mr Lavrov insisted at the League session. “We are protecting international law ... We are not looking for a special prize or geopolitical interest here.”

He said Russia was trying to “promote a peaceful resolution” to Syria’s crisis and that the immediate mission now is to halt violence and enable humanitarian assistance to reach those in need in Syria.

“If we agree to this, then we shall not really engage in discussing who is to blame” for the bloodshed, he said. “This could be done later by authority or international structure empowered to do this.”

Speaking after him, Qatar’s prime minister sharply criticised Mr Lavrov’s remarks. “There is systematic genocide by the Syrian government,” Sheik Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani said, adding that Arabs are not looking for a ceasefire anymore after “genocide” and “systematic killings” of Syrians.