UN Security Council Blocks Statement Condemning Attack on Russian Embassy in Damascus

UNITED NATIONS- The UN Security Council on Tuesday failed to adopt a media statement condemning the recent shelling of the Russian embassy in Damascus as several states rejected the text suggested by Moscow, a spokesman for the Russian mission to the UN said, according to Itar Tass.

According to press secretary Fyodor Strzhizhovsky, the text, proposed by the Russian delegation, was based “on standard wording regarding counter-terrorism and immunity of diplomatic missions.”

 “With regret, we have to state that certain Security Council members have again refused to consider the Russian version of the project under the contrived pretext of the lack of evidence supporting the [version of the] terrorist nature of the attacks. It was suggested that all important provisions of the project should be deleted. Under these circumstances, the Russian side considers further work on this document useless,” the diplomat said.

“Alas, despite our partners’ statements of viewing anti-terrorism struggle as their priority, they repeatedly try to protect those who they probably think may be useful in their devastating geopolitical plans regarding Syria. It’s high time they demonstrated their commitment to a political settlement of the Syrian conflict by deeds, not words and tried to join forces in counteracting terrorism,” Strzhizhovsky said.

According to the Russian mission, the Russian embassy in Damascus “was subjected to several mortar attacks on July 24-25 from the capital’s Jobar district, where terrorist groups retain significant presence.” Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov said on Tuesday at a meeting of the UN Security Council that Russia called on its partners to condemn those attacks.

Russia has repeatedly demanded the United Nations Security Council pass a press statement condemning attacks on its embassy in Damascus. In some cases, these attempts were blocked by Western countries that insisted on wordings unacceptable for Russia.

H.M