Russia says not to provide Damascus with military help
- Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad (R) talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Feb. 7, 2012. <Photo DB: Xinhua>
Russia would not provide military assistance to the Syrian government if Damascus is attacked, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.
Russia and Syria signed a treaty on cooperation and friendship, which says that in case of threat for peace or security, the two sides will immediately keep in touch to coordinate their positions and to cooperate in order to eliminate the threat and restore peace.
“There is no word about military assistance from our part in this document. Russia is not going to do anything like that,” the ministry’s spokesman Alexandr Lukashevich told reporters.
The spokesman said the document envisages only “classical mechanism of consultations.”
“We do not protect the incumbent rule, we protect justice. The Syrian people should find a model, in which it will be comfortable to develop the country in the future,” he was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
Also on Friday, the ministry called on all parties in Syria to cooperate with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations in the settlement of humanitarian problems. <Xinhua>
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