Russia criticizes western calls for Syria's Assad to step down

Aug 19, 2011, 9:24 GMT

Moscow - Western calls for a regime change in Syria are irresponsible and the international community should give President Bashar al-Assad time to enact reforms, Russian officials said Friday.

'The story line pushed by the Americans and their European colleagues that Assad's totalitarian regime is repressing a popular uprising is only part of the picture,' said Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Russian parliament's international affairs committee.

'In reality, there are bandit and extremist elements present in the Syrian opposition,' Kosachev told Interfax.

A Russian Foreign Ministry official said that the Kremlin 'greeted ... a real improvement in the situation' brought by Assad's Thursday announcement his forces would end attacks on opposition fighters and that his government would enact reforms.

'Now is the time to give President Assad's regime time to complete these reform processes,' the Russian diplomat said.

Russia and the international community should wait between one and three months to give reforms promised by Assad to take effect, Kosachev said.

A Russian parliamentary delegation will travel to Syria on a fact-finding mission in coming weeks, according to Moscow news reports.

The Russian official comments came in the wake of concerted calls by western nations for Assad to leave office immediately.

Russia has opposed and even vetoed US-led attempts in the United Nations to invoke sanctions against the Assad regime for using its army to crack down on opposition in recent months.

Good relations between Syria and Moscow date back to the 1960s. Damascus is an important purchaser of Russian arms including anti-tank missiles, ammunition and spare parts.

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