Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a visit to Brunei that he would instead support an increased number of Arab League observers.
Lavrov also said Moscow is surprised about the suspension of the observers’ mission shortly after the Arab League had requested and obtained a one-month extension of the monitoring mission.
The Arab League on January 28 announced that the activities of about 100 monitors still in Syria had been halted with immediate effect.
Syria also said in response that it was “surprised” and “regrets” the league’s decision.
Syria’s official news agency, SANA, said the mission’s suspension was an attempt to influence the United Nations Security Council and increase “pressure for foreign intervention in Syrian affairs.”
Earlier this month, Arab League member Qatar suggested sending Arab troops to Syria to stop violent crackdown by Syrian security forces against the 11-month-old uprising.
The United Nations says more than 5,400 people have been killed, and that violence has increased to the point where it can no longer keep track of the death toll.
Reports said at least 19 more people, including 16 soldiers and three civilians, died in new fighting on January 29.
On January 27, several Arab countries submitted to the UN Security Council a draft resolution based on an Arab League proposal that would have President Bashar al-Assad step down in favor of his deputy and a unity government formed.
That plan has been opposed by Russia, which has proposed its own draft resolution that assigns equal blame for the violence on both Assad’s troops and the opposition.
Western governments have dismissed that option.
The opposition Syrian National Council has called for the Syrian diaspora to rally outside Russian diplomatic missions around the world on January 29 in protest against Moscow’s opposition to the draft UN resolution submitted by Arab countries.
Russia has close trade ties with Assad’s regime — including a military jet delivery contract with Damascus that was signed earlier this month and the continued leasing of a Syrian port for use as a Russian naval base.
Meanwhile, Syrian rebels say they have detained a total of seven Iranians. A commander of the dissident Syrian Free Army, Malek al-Kurdi, says the Iranians were arrested in the flashpoint city of Homs and that five are military experts from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The Iranian state news Agency IRNA reported on January 26 that 11 religious pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria, which also is a close ally of Tehran.
compiled from agency reports
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