Medvedev urges Syria solution

2012-02-08 22:37

Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wants the search for a solution to the Syrian crisis to continue, including within the United Nations Security Council, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

Medvedev urged "the necessity of continuing - including at the UN Security Council - a search for co-ordinated approaches to help the Syrians regulate the crisis themselves" in a phone call with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He added this must happen "without outside interference, with complete respect for the sovereignty of Syria".

Russia last week used its veto at the Security Council to block UN action on Syria, a decision that Medvedev described as justified, arguing the proposed resolution did not promote the search for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

The proposed resolution "did not allow us to make unbiased assessments of the situation in Syria or to ensure that the call for a ceasefire and an end to bloodshed was addressed to both sides," Medvedev was quoted as saying.

"Such a resolution would not have promoted the search for a peaceful way out of the crisis."

The Kremlin issued the statement after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned the West against behaving "like a bull in a china shop" by intervening in Syria.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday after talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus that the Syrian people themselves must decide their fate, and urged the opposition to hold talks with Assad's government.

- AFP