{"id":10832,"date":"2012-07-16T15:11:56","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T22:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=10832"},"modified":"2012-07-16T15:11:56","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T22:11:56","slug":"russia-says-west-using-blackmail-over-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=10832","title":{"rendered":"Russia Says West Using \u201cBlackmail\u201d over Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia Says West Using \u201cBlackmail\u201d over Syria<\/strong>
\nBy AJ Correspondents – 16 July, 2012 – IPS<\/p>\n

DOHA, Qatar, Jul 16 2012 (Al Jazeera) – Russia has said it would block moves at the U.N. Security Council to extend a U.N. monitoring mission in Syria if Western powers did not stop resorting to \u201cblackmail\u201d by threatening sanctions against Damascus.<\/p>\n

Special Envoy for Syria Kofi Annan holds a press conference on Jul. 11. Credit: UN Photo\/Jean-Marc Ferr\u00e9<\/p>\n

Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, staked out a tough position on Monday before talks in Moscow with U.N. envoy Kofi Annan, dismissing international pressure on Russia and China to stop propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n

His comments are likely to dim Western diplomats\u2019 hopes that Moscow is trying to find a face-saving way to drop its support for Assad and accept that he should have no role in a transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo our great regret, we are seeing elements of blackmail,\u201d Lavrov told a news conference before Annan started a two-day visit that will include talks on Tuesday with President Vladimir Putin. \u201cThis is a counter-productive and a dangerous approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Morocco has asked Syria\u2019s ambassador to Rabat to leave the country, the foreign ministry said on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Syrian government in a tit-for-tat response declared the Moroccan envoy to Damascus as persona non grata and asked him to leave.<\/p>\n

Violence in capital<\/strong><\/p>\n

There has been no let up in violence in Syria with parts of the capital, Damascus, under fire for a second day, activists have said, with government forces blocking roads in and out of the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cMortar shelling resumed in the early morning,\u201d the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a grass roots network of activists, said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Reuters news agency reports that the crackle of small arms fire echoes through the streets of Damascus.<\/p>\n

Syrian troops backed by armoured vehicles were said to have advanced through the city centre, driving out rebels who had secured a foothold within striking distance of major state installations.<\/p>\n

The military offensive on Monday reportedly continued to batter several neighbourhoods in the capital, including Midan, Tadamon \u2013 where snipers are reported to be positioned on rooftops \u2013 Kfar Souseh, Nahr Aisha and Sidi Qadad.<\/p>\n

The LCC added that government troops and rebel fighters of the Free Syrian Army also clashed in the western Damascus district of Kfar Souseh.<\/p>\n

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported \u201cdawn battles on the road south of Kfar Souseh, between rebel fighters and soldiers who were in a convoy passing through the area\u201d. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Russia Says West Using \u201cBlackmail\u201d over Syria By AJ Correspondents – 16 July, 2012 – IPS DOHA, Qatar, Jul 16 2012 (Al Jazeera) – Russia has said it would block moves at the U.N. Security Council to extend a U.N. monitoring mission in Syria if Western powers did not stop resorting to \u201cblackmail\u201d by threatening more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[2446],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10833,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10832\/revisions\/10833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}