Russia and China unite against UN force in Syria

By Stefan Korshak and Bill Smith Jan 31, 2012, 14:18 GMT

Moscow/Beijing - The packaging is different but the message is the same: the Russian bear and the Chinese dragon have little appetite for use of force in Syria - and any United Nations Security Council resolution to that effect will be vetoed.

Of the two, the Russians have been the more outspoken, labelling international calls for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - by military intervention if necessary - little less than a sinister western plot for regime change.

'And if he won't leave office, what then? Call in military aviation? Drop bombs? We have already been down that road, and the Security Council will never approve that, I give you my guarantee,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday during an official visit to Sydney.

Russia's state-controlled media has in recent months diligently chronicled the growing death toll from months of fighting between the Syrian regime and the opposition, frankly describing the conflict as a 'civil war' in which pro-Assad forces are doing much more of the killing, frequently with arms and ammunition made in Russia.

But both Russian officials and official new agencies have, as Syria's unrest has worsened, remained in lockstep agreement that Moscow is Damascus' friend and that a relationship giving Russia its main Middle Eastern military outpost should definitely continue.

Soviet-era installations in the Syrian port Tartus are being overhauled into an expeditionary base for Russian warships, al-Assad's army is a top buyer of Russian missiles and fighter jets and Russian business investments in Syria total around 20 billion dollars, according to Russian news reports.

The Kuznetsov, the Russian navy's sole aircraft carrier, in mid-January began training exercises off the Syrian coast. There would however be no shore leave for sailors, the Interfax news agency reported.

The most recent Russian arms delivery to Syria, via a freighter arriving in mid-January, discharged 35 to 60 tons of ammunition and explosives to the Syrian Defence Ministry, in spite of an EU embargo on arms shipments to Damascus, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Lavrov, responding to a Moscow reporter's question on how the Kremlin squared selling ammunition to a regime that had repeatedly ordered its troops to fire on protestors, simply said: 'All Russian military shipments to Syria are legal ... and will continue.'

But the Russian foreign minister has spelled out repeatedly Moscow's opposition to international military intervention on any one's favour in Syria, frequently citing the downfall of former Libyan leader Moamer Gadaffi as exactly the sort of thing the Kremlin will not tolerate.

'There are absolutely no grounds for a repeat, in Syria, of the Libyan scenario,' Lavrov said in a Rossiskaya Gazeta newspaper interview. The only way forward are talks between the Assad regime and the Syrian opposition, with the support of the entire UN Security Council, including Russia and China, he said.

Beijing for its part has made little official - nevermind controversial - comment on Syria in the last 12 days, not least because China is celebrating the lunar new year.

The official Xinhua news agency on Sunday reported, accurately, 'the Security Council appears divided' over the latest draft resolution on Syria.

'China praises Russia's constructive effort to solve the Syria crisis, and we would like to continue consultation based on Russia's draft,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said on January 18, in the most recent formal Chinese statement on Syria.

Liu said China supports the Arab League's mission to Syria, more and faster reforms by the Assad regime and negotiations to create a future Syrian government - a position identical to the Russians.

Lavrov on Tuesday made clear the Kremlin wanted the Syrian talks to go forward but, if necessary, without al-Assad: 'That is not something we have always insisted on ... it is for the Syrian people to decide their future government. But not outsiders.'

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