{"id":11268,"date":"2012-07-27T08:57:09","date_gmt":"2012-07-27T15:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=11268"},"modified":"2012-07-27T08:57:09","modified_gmt":"2012-07-27T15:57:09","slug":"russia-international-calls-for-assad-resignation-blocking-efforts-for-syrian-resolution-of-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=11268","title":{"rendered":"Russia: International calls for Assad resignation blocking efforts for Syrian resolution of conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Russia: Assad resignation calls blocking peace<\/strong><br \/>\n26 July, 2012 -Al Akhbar<\/p>\n<p>Demands that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad quit power are blocking efforts to end the 16-month-old conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Lavrov said such calls &#8211; made by the United States, several European and Arab governments and Turkey &#8211; were fanning the flames of violence and reiterated Moscow&#8217;s claim that support for Syrian rebel groups was tantamount to backing terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We propose things that would allow for an immediate ceasefire, but the other side says, &#8216;No, either the regime capitulates or we will continue to back&#8230;the opposition&#8217;s armed fight&#8217;, justifying terrorist acts,&#8221; Lavrov said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As long as such support continues, what kind of humanitarian action can we talk about? &#8211; including the initiatives of those who will not allow this fire to die down, but instead are fanning it,&#8221; he told a joint briefing with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic in Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>Russia and China have been engaged in a war of words with Western states after they vetoed a fresh UN Security Council resolution earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Western states said the resolution was intended to increase pressure on Assad to end the violence sparked by a government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, but Russia said it could be used as an excuse for foreign intervention.<\/p>\n<p>Moscow retaliated this week, accusing the United States on Wednesday of trying to justify terrorism against the Syrian government.<\/p>\n<p>The claim raised tensions surrounding a diplomatic spat in the UN Security Council, pitting Russia and China against their permanent veto-wielding counterparts the United States, Britain and France. Washington has said it will seek ways to tackle the crisis in Syria outside the world body.<\/p>\n<p>Moscow has repeatedly criticized Western nations for encouraging Assad&#8217;s foes and said they must put more pressure on rebels to stop the violence in Syria, warning that some of those fighting government forces are extremist militants.<\/p>\n<p>Russia says its rejection of sanctions is not driven by support for Assad but by a conviction that Syrians must decide their own fate.   <a href=\"http:\/\/english.al-akhbar.com\/content\/russia-assad-resignation-demands-blocking-peace\" target=\"_blank\">&#8230;source<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D11268&amp;text=Russia%3A+International+calls+for+Assad+resignation+blocking+efforts+for+Syrian+resolution+of+conflict&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russia: Assad resignation calls blocking peace 26 July, 2012 -Al Akhbar Demands that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad quit power are blocking efforts to end the 16-month-old conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Thursday. Lavrov said such calls &#8211; made by the United States, several European and Arab governments and Turkey &#8211; were fanning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=11268#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">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":[3273],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268"}],"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=11268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11269,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268\/revisions\/11269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}