Churkin: Russia will block Security Council resolution threatening Syria

New York, SANA – Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin stressed that Russia will prevent the adoption of a “humanitarian” resolution threatening sanctions against Syria at the UN Security Council.

Churkin, as quoted by Russia Today website, criticized in a statement on Thursday the attempts to rely on Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows the use of force and sanctions, in a draft resolution on humanitarian aid delivery in Syria.

These attempts, he said, “don’t seek concrete humanitarian outcomes, but rather seek practicing more political pressure on the Syrian government.”

Earlier, during a Security Council session on implementing Resolution no. 2139 on aid delivery in Syria, Syria’s Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari lashed out at the countries which have pumped huge amounts of money on funding, arming and sending terrorist into Syria.

Those countries, al-Jaafari said, had better acted by their claims of care for the Syrians and allocate that money to back up Syria-UN humanitarian response plan for 2014, which has so far received only 29 percent of the planned funds.

Churkin struck a relevant note when he advised the US to spend its money which it announced it will allocate to terrorists in Syria on more useful things.

The Russian diplomat’s advice, which was quoted by the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency, came in comment on the White House’s announcement that US President Barack Obama has asked the Congress to allocate USD 500 million in aid for training and equipping what he called the “moderate armed opposition” in Syria.

“Five hundred dollars is a very big amount, which I am sure could be spent on a more useful thing,” Churkin told a press conference at the headquarters of Russia’s UN mission in New York.

He added that the US is putting the situation on Syria on the wrong track. “The US is pouring oil on the fire instead of seeking to find a political solution,” said Churkin.

H. Said