PRESS RELEASE
Russia Undermines Operations
To Topple the Syrian Government
Dec. 24, 2011 (EIRNS)—This release was issued today by the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee.
Yesterday Russia increased the pressure against the ongoing British-orchestrated plan to topple the Syrian government. Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin bluntly stated that Russia was not going to endorse an arms embargo against the Syrian government, while advocates of such an embargo freely armed anti-government forces.
Russia yesterday submitted a revised version of the draft UN Security Council Resolution that it had introduced last week. In yesterday's version, the Russians removed a paragraph from their original draft, "strongly condemning the disproportionate use of force by Syrian authorities." The removal of this paragraph made the new draft weaker than the first version, in the eyes of those running, or backing, the anti-Syria campaign. This deleted paragraph had been the reason the Obama Administration and Europe had initially decided that the first Russian draft was worth negotiating.
Churkin submitted the revised Russian draft the day after a small advance force of Arab League monitors had arrived in Damascus.
The new draft called for the welcoming of Syria's decision to allow in Arab League monitors, but did not endorse the Arab League's threat of sanctions if Syria continues to defend itself against an opposition which is receiving arms from outside the country.
Churkin said yesterday that Assad has become the target of regime change, similar to what happened to Qaddafi in Libya, and emphasized that Russia was not going to drop references to violence coming from elements of the opposition. He also noted that Russia was not going to endorse an arms embargo against the Syrian government:
"We know what arms embargo means these days. It means that—we saw it in Libya—that you cannot supply weapons to the government but everybody else can supply weapons to various opposition groups."
