Medvedev Slams 'Unacceptable' French Support of Syria Rebels
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev slammed as "unacceptable" the recognition and support by France and other states of the Syrian opposition battling the regime of President Bashar Assad.
In a wide-ranging interview with Agence France-Presse and Le Figaro ahead of a visit to Paris starting Monday, Medvedev also spoke of the EU economic crisis as a "serious threat" and did not rule out returning to the Kremlin in the future.
Britain and France have joined Turkey and Arabian Peninsula states in recognizing a newly formed opposition bloc as the sole representative of the Syrian people. Paris has also suggested arming the opposition fighters.
"From the point of view of international law, this is absolutely unacceptable," Medvedev said in the interview at his suburban Gorki residence.
"A desire to change the political regime of another state by recognizing a political force as the sole carrier of sovereignty seems to me to be not completely civilized," he added.
France was the first Western state to recognize the newly-formed Syrian National Coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people and was swiftly joined by Britain, Italy and the European Union.
Paris has also raised the idea of excluding defensive weapons for the rebels from the current blanket EU embargo on Syria.
"Let the Syrian people decide the personal fate of Assad and his regime," said Medvedev. It is preferable if they (the opposition forces) came to power legally and not because of deliveries of arms from other countries," he said.
Medvedev said that Moscow was nervously watching the economic crisis in the European Union, which he said represented a serious threat to Russia's own economic performance.
"We see this as a very serious threat," said Medvedev. "We are to a large extent dependent on what happens in the economies of the EU."
“It seems our European partners are moving towards an agreement but the main thing is that it is not late," he added.
26 November 2012, 08:47
18
amazing! he forgets how much arms they are shipping on a daily basis to the Syrian regime :)
26 November 2012, 18:47
01
I didn't hear you complain when mubarak was taken out in egypt!! He provided them stability as well. Yet you didn't utter a peep because he was against your HA. But now that the shoes is on the other you are up in arms over how they want to remove the assads, who might have provided stability to syria but also high unemployment, a sectarian community where he placed alwais in all high ranking positions. The one country he didn't provide stability for, and in fact worked overtime to ensure it was not achieved, is Lebanon.
26 November 2012, 20:16
00
So you support military coups and dictatorships now lol, where is the isla7 and taghyeer in that?
26 November 2012, 09:32
52
And? It's a government deal between the two.. nothing illegal about that
26 November 2012, 10:43
37
an illegitimate government.. an un-elected government... a murderous government that met peaceful protests with bullets, tanks, and planes.. so Russia thinks that Bashar has the majority and regardless of the crackdown on citizens still sends weapons.. and ALL the other countries think he is a dictator.. who suppresses the people and decided to arm THE PEOPLE.. illegal or not.. power be to them.
26 November 2012, 09:34
17
Medvedev and all Russian officials can huff and puff till they are red in the face and they can claim all kind of illegalities etc. (as if they even know what legal means given the way they treated their demonstrations lately). The fact of the matter is for the people to win against a ruthless regime armed to the teeth (by none other than Mr. Medvedev's Russia) they need weapons of their own to fend off the brutality of the Ba'th regime of Syria.
Enough bullshit as now is the time for Russian politicians to make up their minds. Assad is a ginger and they know it, either they get on board or they will pay the price of most of the Sunnni world's anger. As simple as that Mr. Medvedev and save us the hollow grandstanding and empty arguments.
26 November 2012, 10:10
15
The Aoun of Russia...lol... Putin wrote the script, okayed the interview and basically owns you. when you become a man and leave the shadow of your master then maybe people will take you a little more seriously.. until then you are nothing but a patsy..
26 November 2012, 10:44
15
Let's be honest, shall we???
Russia is supporting a genocidal murderer in Syria in order to keep a warm water naval base on the Mediterranean. And you're just a messenger boy for Putin.
Past Russian vetoes of UN Security Council resolutions have likely led to the deaths of over 25,000 people. Without Russian vetoes, this would have been over long ago.
So my question to you, Roooski....... how do you sleep at night???
26 November 2012, 11:49
14
Russians have a history of genocide unfortunately--Stalin himself is reportedly responsible for the deaths of at least 19 million people, 7 million of which were in the Ukraine. Some people estimate that he was responsible for 60 million deaths, so either case, 25k means nothing to them.
The only thing they are losing sleep over is their naval base--the deaths of civilians means nothing to them.
26 November 2012, 14:47
04
You like selective facts FT--so let's clarify your muck.
In the land now known as the US, native americans weren't killed as much as driven from their land and forced on reservations in bad conditions where they later died. In addition, the buffalo which the native americans relied on for food, clothing, and many other things was almost driven to extinction by the settlers. So yes, not a proud period in American history, but at least it is in the history books. Estimates say that there were 4 million or so native americans at the start of the 19th century and the number on reservations was less than a million at the start of the 20th century.
Most of the extinction of the native americans was due to the Spanish though, and not matter what, Stalin killing 60 million in 25 years dwarfs any other killer in the history of the world--even Hitler was responsible for less than 10 million.
26 November 2012, 15:03
05
FT regarding your previous comment yes both Assads brought stability to Syria since 1970-2010 but at what cost?? How many dead? People living in a police backward state....
Now of course when Junior is gone Syria might have instability and the brothers might come to power but this is how they will learn democracy.
The brothers are more organized as we saw in Egypt but when political parties will form, things will change with time.
That's the process and the Syrians also deserve to get there.
No country deserves to live under a dictator only for 'stability'
26 November 2012, 19:13
01
"A desire to change the political regime of another state by recognizing a political force as the sole carrier of sovereignty seems to me to be not completely civilized,"
but i guess for russia a gvt bombing civilians despite international laws is civilized? oh! yes i forgot chechnya! you did the same... no wonder you support bashar, he learnt his methods from you...
26 November 2012, 19:14
01
"From the point of view of international law, this is absolutely unacceptable,"
so are the bombings of civilians too...so are the massacres of one own s citizens too....
