Moscow Sees Threat of Disaster in the Middle East

Sergey Lavrov does not think that the USA and Russia are on the brink of arms race.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, held a press conference in Moscow yesterday to evaluate the foreign affairs activities of 2011. Practically, there were two parts in his speech. In the first one, he described positively the development of Russia’s relations with the majority of the countries in the world: first of all with global partners like the U.S. and China, as well as with post-Soviet neighbors. In the second part, he expressed concern regarding the situation in the Middle East with increasing attempts of an external intervention into Syria and the threat of a disastrous attack against Iran.

Reviewing the work of Russian diplomacy, Lavrov said that Moscow successfully developed cooperation with other countries in order to modernize its economy and to solve other international problems. Regarding its relations with the U.S., Lavrov said: “I don’t think that there are reasons to talk that we are on the brink of a new wave of arms race and the Cold War. The Cold War is over long time ago. We are no longer enemies. Confrontation is for sure not our choice, and I don’t think that intelligent politicians in U.S. want any confrontation either”.

According to Lavrov, both sides have disagreements: first of all, regarding America’s building missile defense systems in Europe. As it was mentioned by the minister, the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, confirmed his intentions in November last year to continue a dialogue with the U.S. and NATO in order to find a compromise to solve one of the most painful problems in the relations between Russia and the West.

At the same time, Lavrov admitted that relations between both states went far beyond just military-strategic subjects. In particular, they include increasing each year’s trade exchanges, investment cooperation and other relations. According to the Minister, the conditions to repeal the discriminative Jackson-Vanik amendment by the U.S. Congress have appeared since a long time ago. “When the process of document ratification for Russia to join WTO is finished, and if by this time this amendment is still in force, then agreements we made regarding WTO will not be applied to our trade with U.S.”.

“I think it is clear in Washington now that this clash can painfully hurt the interests of America’s business circles. We have information that the Obama Administration is supposed to start promoting in Congress this legislative initiative,” said Lavrov.

Talking about the problems of international security, Lavrov addressed the situation in the Middle East. He acknowledged the large-scale political changes in the countries of the region, the Arab Spring. According to his words, changes should happen without any outside interference, and all the states should respect the choices that other people make.

Meanwhile, talking about the situation in Syria, the minister admitted the facts regarding interference in their affairs, including moving arms to this country. Russia will never allow for interference in Syria to be sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council, where Libya’s precedent can be repeated, he said. Talking about Russia’s draft resolution of Security Council on Syria, the head of Russian diplomacy said that Russia and China will continue insisting on the resolution to maintain provisions regarding the U.N.’s non-interference in Syria’s internal affairs, as well as to not allow this document to be interpreted as a motive to use force against Damascus.

“If someone is going to use force at any expense, as I’ve already heard calls to bring Arab troops to Syria, we’ll hardly be able to prevent them, if someone wants to do something like this,” said Lavrov. “But let it happen on their own initiative, let it be on their consciousness, as they will not get any authorization from the Security Council.”

According to the head of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow is seriously concerned about declarations of a possible attack on Iran. “As for the chances that this disaster may happen, you need to ask those who constantly mention it as an option that remains on the table. The consequences will be grave, and we are seriously concerned about them,” said Lavrov. “This may cause a huge flow of refugees to the neighboring countries, and it may not be the worst part of the problem. This will not be an easy walk. This will add fuel to the fire of Sunni-Shia confrontation. After that might be a domino effect, and I don’t know where it will stop.”