Lavrov too busy to speak to Clinton about Syria

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is a hard man to reach these days - especially if you’re Hillary Clinton, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Journal says that the U.S. Secretary of State tried for twenty-four hours to get Mr. Lavrov on the phone to discuss a draft resolution on Syria, with no luck, according to the transcript of a State Department briefing.

Britain, France and the U.S. plan to make their strongest effort yet to push through a draft resolution calling for Syrian President Bashir Assad’s resignation. At least 5,400 people have been killed in the country’s 10-month long crackdown on protestors.

Mr. Lavrov, who was in Australia when Mrs. Clinton was trying to reach him, has a perfectly good explanation: He was too busy to take the call.

Mrs. Clinton’s phone call came “at the height of meetings with our Australian partners,” Russian news agencies quoted him as saying. “It is not in the Russian diplomatic tradition … to offend those with whom we have had long-scheduled meetings.”

Mr. Lavrov appeared to disparage the State Department’s notions of etiquette when asked why the State Department said it couldn’t reach him for so long.

“Probably, it is a question of manners,” he said.

The conversation with Mrs. Clinton will take place “at the first possible opportunity,” Mr. Lavrov said.

But he also hinted that such things may be better resolved at a lower level.

“Basically, the ambassadors are sitting there in a room and reviewing the text. To call the other end of the world in order to discuss the placement of commas and such may not be the best method,” Mr. Lavrov said.

He said that while Russia was “neither a friend nor an ally” to Syria, Moscow would not support calls for President Assad’s ouster.