Russia reiterates its stand on Syrian internal affairs; Syria issues presidential decision for forming a committee to set up bases for national dialogue; UN special advisers express alarm at Syrian violence; Syria and Iraq discuss regional situation, ways
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    • In a joint press conference with his Bulgarian counterpart Nikolay Mladenov in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov renewed Russia's firm rejection of any foreign interference in Syria's internal affairs. Lavrov said that Syria was a crucial country in the Middle East, indicating that any attempt to destabilize it could yield disastrous consequences. Further, he added that any such attempts should be discarded.1 In a separate statement to Russian press in Brussels, Russia's Permanent Representative to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, announced that that Russia would not support any international resolution on the use of force against Syria.2

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a presidential decision for forming an ad hoc committee to set up bases for a national dialogue, specify its work mechanism and its timetable. The Committee comprises of Farouk al-Shara, Safwan Qudsi, Haitham Sataihi, Yaser Houriea, Hanin Nimr, Abdullah al-Khani, Waild Ekhlasi, Muneir al-Himsh and Ibrahim Daraji. President also discussed with them the importance of the national dialogue to overcome the current situation.3

    In a joint statement, the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Francis Deng, and special adviser on the responsibility to protect, Edward Luck, expressed alarm at Syrian authorities’ violence against civilians in their crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. They said they were “gravely concerned at the increasing loss of life in Syria due to continued violent suppression of anti-government protests”. Deng and Luck also said that Syrian forces appear to have been targeting residential neighbourhoods in their operations and called for “an independent, thorough and objective investigation” into all alleged violations of international human rights law.4

    In other developments, in the framework of standing cooperation between the leaderships of Syria and Iraq, Foreign and Expatriates Minister of Syria Walid al-Moallem discussed with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki about the situation in the region and means of developing bilateral relations in various fields. The talks highlighted the necessity of increasing the volume of trade between the two countries by giving Syrian exports needed facilitations and holding a Syrian-Iraqi businessmen conference in Baghdad in June as well as discussing cooperation in the field of energy and oil. The two sides also signed a memorandum of understanding on establishing a network of oil and gas pipelines to transfer Iraqi crude oil and gas across Syria.5

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