August 30, 2012 (TSR) – Russian Kommersant newspaper predicted the failure of the UN Security Council session on Syria scheduled on August 30, saying that the session “is doomed to failure”.
In its edition issued on Wednesday, the paper pointed out that Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, decided not to participate in the session, which was proposed by France on the ministerial level, noting that it seems that only the French Foreign Minister will attend the session.
An informed source told the Kommersant that Lavrov did not want to be almost the only minister to attend the meeting besides the French minister, noting that Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, will be representing Moscow to the meeting.
“There is another reason why Lavrov refused to participate which is that it has become clear from the initial deliberations that the meeting will not come out with any agreed-on document,” the source said.
It pointed out that France, during its current chairmanship of the Security Council, has hoped for achieving a serious progress regarding the Syrian issue, but the proposed ministerial meeting seems to be poor in terms of representation level.
According to the source, the newspaper said the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton does not intend to participate in the meeting, neither the U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Suzan Rice, adding that the British Foreign Secretary William Hague has not yet decided whether to attend or not, and is expected not to.
The source highlighted that rapprochement has not been reached between Russia and China on one hand and France, Britain and the US on the other hand.
(source: Champress)
