Russia denounces Syrian ultimatums

Russia on Tuesday urged an end to “ultimatums” against its Middle East ally Syria as Turkey said it did not want to consider a military option for intervention in Syria but that it was ready for any scenario. Moscow opposes the imposition of an arms embargo on Syria and believes the international community should stop threatening Damascus with ultimatums; local news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Tuesday. “Right now, the most important thing is to stop acting by means of ultimatums and try to move toward political dialogue,” Interfax quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying. The U.N. Human Rights Council said on Monday that Syrian military and security forces had committed crimes against humanity including murder, torture and rape, and called for an arms embargo on Syria, according to AFP. His comments came one day after the United States and the European Union issued a joint statement after White House talks for “the Syrian government to end violence immediately.” Lavrov added that Russia’s negative experience of NATO’s air campaign in Libya made it unlikely that Moscow would back the imposition of an arms embargo against Syria. “The periodic proposals that we hear on imposing a complete arms embargo on Syria -- I would say that they are fairly disingenuous,” Lavrov said after meeting his Icelandic counterpart. “We are going to view another embargo, this one against Syria, based on the experience that we gained from the Libyan example.” Russia backed the impositions of an arms embargo against the strongman regime of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and abstained from a U.N. resolution that paved the way for military action against his regime. Moscow then strongly criticized the course of the campaign and was particularly angered by an arms drop to Libyan opposition forces that was confirmed by France. Russia accused NATO of breaking the spirit of the U.N. resolution by picking sides in the Libya conflict and openly backing the opposition. Russia teamed up with China last month to veto a Western-backed U.N. Security Council resolution condemning President Bashar al-Assad’s government for violence the United Nations says has killed more than 3,500 people. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, meanwhile, said on Tuesday that Turkey did not want to consider a military option for intervention in Syria but that it was ready for any scenario. In an interview with the television broadcaster Kanal 24, Davutoglu said on Syria that a regime which tortures its own people had no chance of survival. Davutoglu said the international community may decide a buffer zone is needed in Syria if hundreds of thousands of people try to flee violence there, according to Reuters. The Syrian government needs to find a way to make peace with its own people and Damascus still has a chance to accept international observers proposed by the Arab League, Davutoglu said. “If the oppression continues, Turkey is ready for any scenario. We hope that a military intervention will never be necessary. The Syrian regime has to find a way of making peace with its own people,” he said. Ankara is expected to follow the Arab League in imposing sanctions on Syria, with which it has an 800-km (500 mile) border. Turkey will selectively impose those sanctions announced by the Arab League to avoid harming the Syrian people, the Turkish newspaper Sabah reported on Tuesday. The Arab League imposed the sanctions on Sunday and the European Union weighed in one day later. Sabah said Syrian government accounts at the Turkish central bank will be suspended, official sales to the Syrian state will be halted and a travel ban will be imposed on Assad and his family. However, civil aviation flights will not be halted and Turkish Airlines services to Damascus will continue. It did not identify sources for the story. Turkey will also avoid measures which would harm truck trade on the border. The flow of water and electricity to Syria will also not be restricted so as not to affect the people of Syria. The paper said the Arab League measures were discussed at a meeting of Turkish ministers on Sunday night and will be imposed after approval from Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.