Syrians climb a pole and hold flags during a protest against Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad in Kafranbel near Idlib . (R)
DUBAI,(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that any dialogue about the crisis engulfing Syria would at present lead nowhere, criticising Russia’s decision earlier this month to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution.
“As for now, any discussion about the situation (in Syria) would be fruitless,” the Saudi state news agency SPA quoted the Saudi monarch as saying during a telephone conversation with Medvedev on Wednesday.
“It would have been better if our Russian friends coordinated with the Arabs before using the veto in the Security Council,” the king said.
“We cannot abandon our religious and moral position towards the situation in Syria.”
The defeated Security Council resolution, which was also vetoed by China on Feb. 4, backed an Arab plan urging President Bashar al-Assad to give up power.
Russia’s decision to use its veto was criticised by the West which accused Moscow of undermining global efforts to end Assad’s bloody crackdown on internal unrest.
Russia, though, has said any outside intervention could make the situation even worse and has called for a dialogue between President Assad and his opponents, a suggestion the Syrian opposition has dismissed as unrealistic.
Demonstrators take part in a protest against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Jerjenaz, near Idlib, February 17, 2012. The sign reads, “Enemies of humanity your dark night will go and the new dawn of freedom will rise”. (R)
A militant with the Free Syrian Army sits at the back of pick-up truck in the northwestern city of Idlib. (AFP)