Lavrov: Russia against arms embargo on Syria

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia is against imposing an arms embargo on Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, November 29, RIA Novosti reported.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow following his meeting with Arab ambassadors to Russia on Monday, Lavrov said lessons should be learnt from the situation in Libya, where an embargo on arms supplies was “only applied to the Libyan army.”

“Groups, including those formed from citizens who penetrated to Syria from other states, have been actively supplied with arms,” he said. “That is why proposals to introduce a ban on any arms supplies to Syria are quite unfair.”

The United States and European Union have already banned arms supplies to Damascus, and the Arab League proposed to follow suit during its meeting on Syria on Sunday. Russia is Syria’s major arms supplier, with contracts worth at least $4 as of 2011.

“We know how the arms embargo was applied in Libya,” Lavrov said. “The opposition was receiving arms, with such countries as France and Qatar publicly stating that they have supplied those arms.”