US Using ‘Unproven Excuses’ For Armed Action in Syria – Moscow

MOSCOW– Russia slammed the United States on Tuesday for allegedly using “unproven excuses” to justify military action in Syria and said Moscow is “seriously disappointed” by Washington’s decision to put off a bilateral meeting to discuss the crisis there.

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s statement  Monday “categorically claims that the US has the ‘undeniable proof’ about the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government, although the ‘data’ has not been presented,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said,according to RIA Novosti.

“Attempts to bypass the Security Council, to once again create artificial, unproven excuses for an armed intervention in the region are fraught with new suffering in Syria and catastrophic consequences for other countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa,” Lukashevich said in the statement posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website.

Moscow also said it was “seriously disappointed” with the White House’s decision to put off a meeting between Russian and US diplomats scheduled for Wednesday in The Hague to discuss the situation in Syria.

 “Moscow perceives Washington’s decision to postpone this meeting literally on the eve of the agreed-upon date with serious disappointment,” Lukashevich said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website.

A senior Russian diplomat said earlier Tuesday that Moscow regretted what he called the cancellation of the meeting. “[Our] partners’ decision to cancel the Russia-US bilateral meeting to discuss the matter of assembling an international conference on Syria causes regret,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said in a tweet.

M.D