Moscow may support new UN resolution on Syria - Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday said Moscow may support a projected UN Security Council resolution stipulating that peacekeepers will be deployed to Syria, but only under certain conditions. “If the issue is about stopping gunfire, everything is possible,” Lavrov said at joint a press conference with his Dutch counterpart Uri Rosenthal discussing the new projected UN resolution. Syria on Sunday rejected an Arab League resolution calling for a joint UN-Arab peacekeeping force in the country as well as tightening economic sanctions on Damascus. “If we agree the terms of the mission’s presence in the country, if the principles of the UN organization charter are fulfilled, there will be no problem,” Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Monday. The Arab League resolution came a week after Russia and China blocked a UN Security Council resolution on Syria. The Arab League has been at the forefront of regional efforts to end violence in Syria. The group put forward a plan that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad agreed to in December, and then sent monitors to Syria. The League withdrew its monitoring mission from Syria in January because the regime failed to end the bloodshed.