UN resolution on Syria hinders peace talks, Russian FM says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov criticized a draft resolution on Syria on Wednesday, May 29 due to be considered by the United Nations Human Rights Council, saying it was a hindrance to forthcoming peace talks, RIA Novosti reported.

The Council is set to hold an urgent debate on Wednesday on a resolution over the recent violence in the Syrian town of Qusayr. The draft resolution was backed by Qatar, Turkey and the United States.

Lavrov said the debate would undermine his efforts, together with US Secretary of State John Kerry, to convene an international peace conference on Syria. Russia and the US have been pushing this month for a peace conference in an effort to end the two-year Syrian conflict, which is threatening to spill over into neighboring states.

"Its [resolution] active promotion means, to us, an unequivocal attempt to hinder the Russia-American initiative," Lavrov told reporters.

Lavrov said he was surprised to see the United States had supported the draft resolution, and said he had raised the issue during his meeting with Kerry in Paris earlier this week.

“He [Kerry] said that he was not aware of that initiative and promised to sort it out. Not sure whether he succeeded or not,” Lavrov told the briefing.

Lavrov also warned that the ongoing civil war in Syria, which has claimed the lives of some 80,000 people according to UN figures, is turning into “a inter-confessional” conflict, which, he said, could worsen the conflict between Muslims and followers of other religions in the region.