Russia calls for Syria’s return to Arab League
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Monday, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation at the United Nations Vasily Alekseevich Nebenzya said that Syrians need the help of the international community, while the Russian State Duma pointed out that Russia has been devoting all possible effort to the return of Syria to the League of Arab States.
Nebenzya said in a briefing to the UN Security Council, “Foreign powers took advantage of the disturbances which occurred in March 2011 in Syria to escalate the conditions in the country.”
“Those powers aimed to topple the legitimate Syrian authorities and reconstruct the country as they want,” he added.
He stressed that “illegal armed groups, some of which are international, befitted from this to expand.”
The Russian official renewed his country’s call that “all foreign powers unwelcomed by Damascus exit from Syria.”
Russia is paying all possible efforts in order to readmit Syria into the League of Arab States, according to member of the State Duma of Russia Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky.
“We are still doing our best regarding the Syrian settlement on all levels through making great political and diplomatic efforts to readmit Damascus into the Arab League,” he added in an exclusive interview on the tenth anniversary of the Syrian war.
He expressed his beliefs that Syria “must once again become a full-fledged member of the international community, and return to the Arab family (Arab League).”
Meanwhile, in a joint statement on the tenth anniversary of the Syrian war, the US and four other allied European States said that they would not recognize the presidential elections in Syria this year.
The joint statement was made by the Foreign Ministers of US Antony Blinken, Britain Dominic Raab, Germany Heiko Maas, France Jean-Yves Le Drian and Italy Luigi Di Maio on Monday.
“The Syrian presidential elections scheduled this year will be neither free nor fair and should not lead to any international procedure to normalize ties with the Syrian regime,” the statement stressed.
The French Foreign Ministry said, “Paris, with other partners in the European Union will continue working to make the normalization of ties with Damascus conditional on a permanent political solution.”
“France will continue its hard work against terrorism in Syria alongside its partners in the Global Coalition against Islamic State (ISIS) and the partner forces on the ground,” the French Foreign Ministry stressed.
UN Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen stressed the necessity to continue the political path to reach a settlement for the Syrian war in order to reunite and stabilize Syrian territory.
On Sunday, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, mentioned that about 388,652 people were killed during the ten-year Syrian war.