Lavrov: Countries that boycotted refugees conference held in Damascus committed a serious mistake

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared on Tuesday that the countries that deliberately boycotted the International conference on the return of refugees, which was held in Damascus on November 11-12, committed a serious mistake.

The minister was quoted by Sputnik as saying: “The countries that sent delegations to attend the conference proved their interest in resolving the crisis in Syria without making geopolitical changes; however the countries that deliberately ignored the conference and exerted efforts to prevent their allies from attending that important event committed a serious mistake.”    

The final statement of the International Conference on the Return of Syrian Refugees, affirmed the firm support for the unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Syria. The conference stressed that Syria is ready not only to welcome back its citizens, but to continue with efforts to provide decent living conditions for them.

In another development, Lavrov noted that relations between Russia and the European Union continued to degrade in recent years.

“It is not our fault,”  he said in a video addressing to the organizers of and participants in the Potsdam Meetings forum. “Unfortunately, our EU counterparts, in a bid to secure unilateral advantages at the expense of others, have made a very short-sighted choice in favor of the ‘master-slave’ logic, in favor of archaic ‘zero sum’ geopolitical games, in favor of creating new dividing lines.”

According to Russia’s top diplomat, the EU’s actions include support for an unconstitutional coup in Ukraine, unilateral sanctions against Russia and the destruction of the entire multi-level system of dialogue between Russia and the EU. “As a result, our common continent faced a large-scale crisis of trust, and European businesses, including German, are suffering substantial losses. Subsequently, the large-scale potential of Russian-German ties remains untapped,” he went on to say.

Basma Qaddour