Russian Foreign Minister: US Should Look in Mirror & Do What They Promised

According to Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, the US should look in a mirror and do what they have been promising to do since January – to delimit opposition, which they consider loyal, from terrorists. The statement was made in response to US proposal to join efforts of Moscow and Teheran and make Damascus to be held accountable for the use of chemical weapons.

Photo: Photo: Sputnik / Grigory Sysoev

Instead of imposing requirements for Syria on chemical weapons, the US must do what they promised – to delimit opposition and terrorists in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in response to journalists’ questions about Washington’s proposal to join efforts of Moscow and Teheran and make Damascus to be held accountable for the use of chemical weapons.

“It would be better if they [Americans] look in a mirror and do what they have been promising to do since January – to delimit opposition, which they consider loyal, from terrorists. They cannot do this – they are either unable or unwilling,” the Russian minister said.

Earlier, spokesman for the White House National Security Council (NSC), Ned Price, said that Washington calls on Moscow and Tehran to participate in attempts to “bring Syria to account” for the use of chemical weapons. The statement was made after publication of results of the UN and OPCW (the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) investigations.

In this connection, Sergei Lavrov said the Russian side has prevented a US attack on Syria in 2013, convincing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to give up chemical weapons.

“Undoubtedly, the consequences could be even more destructive, if Russia did not prevent the US strike on Syria three years ago,” Lavrov noted in an interview with the TASS news agency.

According to him, “it is scary to imagine where anti-missile air defense systems and other ‘conventional’ weapons, as well as stocks of this weapon of mass destruction, would be now.”

In 2013, the US government accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons against civilians. Initially, US President Barack Obama planned to carry out an operation at his own discretion, but then he asked the Congress for a formal resolution. The Congress was opposed.

In the same year, Russia convinced the US during negotiation in Geneva that there was a possibility of a peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria. The sides agreed on military nonintervention and destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons by mid-2014.

At the same time, Syrian envoy to the UN Bashar Jaafari told Sputnik that “the UN ignored hundreds of reports on chemical attacks filed by the Syrian government.” On Tuesday, he also claimed that “the sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people in the Syrian town of Ghouta in August 2013 was a plot organized by French intelligence.”