by Lady Michelle Jennifer Santos
11 August 2015, MOSCOW (TSR) – Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubier met on August 11, 2015 to discuss how to resolve the worsening Syrian civil war, and the fate of President Bashar al-Assad.
During the press conference, Lavrov stated that Moscow was concerned with certain resolutions that some members were proposing and criticised members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in making “the UN Security Council an instrument of propaganda”.
The two men disagreed how to deal with the embattled president, as Russia believes Assad, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, should be involved in a coalition against the Islamic State, but Saudi Arabia wants him removed from power.
While the Saudi top diplomat spoke, Lavrov was seen shaking his head, adjusting his glasses, and muttering to himself, “f***ing imbeciles(“Blya… debili”),” according to translators.
The word he used is “debile”. But it had to be translated in cultural context. Debile means lacking bodily or muscular strength or vitality like “a feeble old woman” but that is not applicable in this context. More like “morons” in approximation, really.
Russian and Iranian officials are persuading Saudi Arabia and the United States to realize that fighting terrorism in the region is more important than ousting Assad, The New York Times reported this week.
Russia is at logger heads with Saudi Arabia regarding the fate of Bashar al-Assad.
Jubeir insisted after his meeting with Lavrov that “there is no place for Assad in the future of Syria.”
“I wouldn’t want any of the influential countries, which are, one way or another, involved in the events surrounding the Syrian crisis, to hope that the al-Assad issue can be resolved by force”, Lavrov said in the press conference.
“The only military solution that is possible here is if power is seized by ISIS or other terrorists. I don’t think anyone wants to see this happen”, he said.
“Today, we talked about how Syrian President Bashar al-Assad does not pose any real threat. Perhaps, we can discuss issues that arose in Syria and continue to escalate, but al-Assad does not threaten any neighbouring country, whereas ISIS threatens not just Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia, and says so publicly, but this terrorist mechanism is also making some maps that cover territories from Spain to Pakistan. So, here we need to see how these two threats stack up against each other”, the Russian foreign minister explains to the press.
“The first issue concerned contradictions between Russia and Saudi Arabia regarding the Geneva communiqué of June 2012. Right off the bat, I can tell you that there are no contradictions. Saudi Arabia and Russia advocate full compliance with the Geneva communiqué, including, as the communiqué states, the creation of a transitional governing body, which will assume all executive power. The membership of such a body, and the decision to create it, should be based on the general consent between the Syrian government and all Syrian opposition groups”, Lavrov elaborates.
“The Geneva communiqué was approved by a binding UN Security Council resolution by consensus. There’s nothing to argue about”, he added and called for full compliance with the Geneva communiqué.
