Syrian Christian girls with Easter eggs… the Islamist opposition has made it clear that they want to murder Alawis and boot out Christians. Why are the USA and its Western allies all supporting them? I find that vile hypocrisy of the most foul and odious sort.
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On Tuesday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID) spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich said that Russia wouldn’t participate in a meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria Group in Tunisia. Last week, during an emergency meeting of the Arab League Council held at the Foreign Minister-level, Tunisia initiated the first international conference Friends of Syria. Earlier, the Arabic newspaper Al Sharq Al Awsat, citing a statement by Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesselam, reported that Russia would participate in the event. Lukashevich said, “Officially, we weren’t informed who’d take part in the conference or what the agenda would be. Most importantly, it’s unclear what the actual goal of this initiative is”. He said that there was some information that several opposition groups received invitations to the Tunisia meeting, but the Syrian government didn’t, saying, “Serious questions arose about the final document of the meeting. According to some sources, some countries would simply rubber-stamp a document that’s already in the process of being written, without any knowledge of its origins. Taking into account all these circumstances, we consider that it isn’t possible for us to participate in the meeting”.
Lukashevich said that, according to the report, “it seems that we’re talking about slapping together some kind of international coalition as was the case in organising the Libya Contact Group in order to support one side against the other in an internal conflict”. In its statement, the MID said, “Russia thinks that all members of the world community should act as friends of all Syrian people and not only a portion of them. We suggest that members of the Security Council ask the UN Secretary General to send his special envoy to Syria to negotiate with the government and all other parties to ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian goods”.
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Patrick Seale, a leading British writer on the Middle East and the author of several books about Syria and the Arab world, shared his opinion on Russia’s role in the Middle East on the sidelines of an international conference, entitled Transformation in the Arab World and Russia’s Interests, held 17-18 February in the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi.
Click here for a three-minute video in English
21 February 2012
RIA-Novosti
Voices from Russia 
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