MOSCOW: A decision by international opponents of Syrian President Bashar
Al Assad to give military support to Western-backed rebels will hamper efforts to find a swift political solution to the conflict, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
Moscow, a long-standing arms supplier to Damascus, has shielded Assad from more international pressure during more than two years of a conflict that has killed some 93,000 people and driven 1.6 million refugees abroad. The Friends of Syria group, which brings together Western and Arab states as well as Turkey, agreed in Qatar over the weekend to “provide urgently all the necessary material and equipment to the opposition on the ground”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that decision could not fail to cause “serious concern”. “One must notice that the aim to provide, in fact, unlimited military support for the Syrian opposition — announced in Doha and in practice already carried out — completely contradicts efforts for a swift political solution in Syria.” REUTERS
