Russia will not support a draft resolution brokered by the UN Security Council that authorizes sanctions against Syria if it fails to stop violence, the first deputy of the Russian envoy to the UN, Alexander Pankin said on Wednesday.
The diplomat said that Western countries were seeking to pass a resolution in the UN Security Council that stipulates imposing sanctions on the violence-hit Syria if the crisis was not solved.
“We will not support them since we don’t think that any sanctions will have an effect,” the diplomat said, adding that the UN-backed measures would mainly target president Bashar al-Assad’s government.
China will also oppose the sanctions, Pankin said, following the closed meeting on Syria in the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
