MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti) – A top Russian human rights official criticized a United Nations draft resolution on Syria on Wednesday, claiming the measure defies the logic of a diplomatic resolution for the country’s civil war.
The UN resolution also wrongly places the main responsibility for the war on the Syrian government, said Anatoly Viktorov, the deputy director of the Foreign Ministry’s department on humanitarian cooperation and human rights.
“This project is yet another attempt … to put pressure on the [Syrian] government,” Viktorov said. “Such an approach is unacceptable in principle.”
Viktorov said Russia is committed to supporting a peaceful resolution to the conflict, which may be negotiated at an upcoming international peace conference in Geneva.
The UN Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee approved a draft resolution on Tuesday “strongly condemn[ing] the continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms” in Syria and denouncing the use of chemical weapons in the country.
The resolution, authored by a number of countries including France, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Kingdom, passed by 123 votes to 13, with 46 abstentions.
Russia voted against the measure.
According to the UN, over 100,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since the start of a bloody civil war in Syria in March 2011, which began amid massive protests against President Bashar Assad’s regime. Millions of Syrians have fled the conflict, and many are now living as refugees in neighboring countries.
Russia has largely been a staunch ally of the Syrian government throughout the war, sending weapons and other aid to Assad’s regime and blocking several UN resolutions condemning the Syrian state for its conduct in the conflict.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin played a key role in brokering a UN deal in September to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile in a development that staved off a possible US-led military intervention.
