Russia is disappointed in the decision by Syrian rebels to pull out of a ceasefire that was an integral part of a United Nations peace plan for the conflict-torn Middle Eastern country, a leading Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday.
“This is, of course, sad and extremely negative,” Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said.
He also said a U.S. State Department delegation would arrive in Moscow later this week for talks on how to resolve the crisis in Syria.
A spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army told Reuters on Monday that insurgents had pulled out of the faltering truce stipulated by UN envoy Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan and had begun attacking soldiers to “defend our people.” The statement came after a British-based activist group said rebels had killed some 80 soldiers over the weekend.
The spokesman also said rebels were calling for the UN observer mission in the country to become a "peace enforcing mission." He also said the rebels would welcome the imposition by the international community of a no-fly zone and a buffer zone.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reiterated on Monday that Annan's plan "remains central" to halting more than 15-months of bloodshed in Syria.The UN has sent 300 observers to Syria to monitor a ceasefire that has failed to take hold since it was supposed to come into force on April 12.
And the European Union and Russia said at a summit in St. Petersburg on Monday that, despite “diverging assessments” they both agreed that Annan’s faltering peace plan remained the best chance of halting the spiraling violence in Syria.
The St. Petersburg summit came a day after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in a televised address, denied that government forces were to blame for the May 25 massacre of over 100 people, including dozens of children, in the Syrian town of Houla. Assad said the killings were an “ugly crime” that even “terrorists” would balk at carrying out.
The United Nations, citing eyewitnesses, has said pro-Assad militia fighters were responsible for the slaughter. Russia has criticized Syria over its shelling of the town, but says it does not rule out that rebels carried out the majority of the killings as a “provocation” ahead of a visit by Annan to Syria.
Syria announced on Tuesday that it would expel the ambassadors of a host of Western countries, including the United States, Britain and France. The move comes after Syrian envoys in the West were told to pack their bags in the wake of the Houla massacre.
The Kremlin has come under international pressure to take harder line on embattled Assad regime.
Russia has denied that it is protecting Assad or that it has any special interests in Syria, but has twice – along with China - vetoed UN resolutions against Damascus over what it calls a pro-rebel bias.
Moscow has, however, fully backed Annan’s plan, which calls for the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from urban areas and a ceasefire to end 15-months of spiraling violence there.
Putin said in February in a pre-election campaign article that Russia would not allow a repeat of the “Libyan scenario.” Russia abstained from the March 2011 UN Security Council vote on the resolution that led to NATO airstrikes against forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his eventual death at the hands of rebels.
The UN says over 9,000 people have died since the revolt against Assad's 11-year rule began last year.
