The New Worker
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 3rd February 2012
RUSSIA and People’s China are resisting a new imperialist drive at the United Nations to topple the Syrian government. Rabid imperialist calls for Syrian President Bashar al Assad to resign and hand over power to self-appointed opposition leaders, who do the bidding of the oil princes and the Western powers, have been translated into another Nato-sponsored draft resolution at the UN Security Council that would give UN sanction for a Libya-style Nato attack on Syria.
Russia and China vetoed a similar imperialist resolution on Syria in October.
This week the Kremlin made it clear that they’ll do it again if the Nato powers force a vote.
Russia and China are the only veto-powers on the Security Council refusing to back the resolution submitted by the feudal Moroccans and endorsed by the Arab League, a front for Arab oil princes in the pay of the big oil corporations.
They had their fingers burnt when they abstained over the Libya “no-fly zone” which only applied to the Libyans and not to Nato aviation last year. Nato brushed aside subsequent objections to the use of their air armada, which hammered the Libyans into the ground and enabled puppet rebel militias to seize power and overthrow the Gaddafi government.
Russia will not bargain with the West over the fresh draft resolution on Syria, says Russia’s deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov. The draft in its current form ignores the Russian position and therefore has no chance of being accepted, he told the media in Moscow on Monday.
“It is not part of our political practice to trade our principles,” Gatilov declared. “We don’t bargain, but seek consideration for our positions and our vision, which are based on our knowledge of regional realities and our historical experience.
“Russia can only support the resolution if it meets Russia’s principled approaches, which I have mentioned and which are shared by many other countries,” he added.
Russia’s ambassador at the UN Headquarters in New York says that the “international community” should not meddle in Syria’s domestic conflict. Vitaly Churkin stated that sanctions could risk heating up the conflict, and called for both sides to cease violence. “Moscow rejects any sanction approaches, any attempts to use the Security Council instruments to fuel the conflict, to justify a military intervention,” Churkin said. “The Council cannot dictate parameters for an internal political settlement; it has no authority for it.”
This has been echoed by the Chinese who have told the UN that further sanctions would only complicate Syria’s situation. The Chinese delegate states that the Syrian people’s request for reforms must be respected — but with the involvement of both sides in the conflict.
Russia has offered to mediate and Syria has agreed to take part in Rus sian-sponsored talks with opposition groups in Moscow. But a senior member of the “Syrian National Council”, a Muslim Brotherhood front based in Turkey, said that no invitation had been received from Moscow and that it would be refused anyway.
We’ll see. Arab political analyst Doctor Hisham Ghassib told the Russian media that the Syrian opposition is not a monolithic bloc, and the decision of any one group to come to the negotiating table will ultimately depend on its geopolitical alliances.
“This is a good initiative on Russia’s part, but I don’t think it will succeed because of this external opposition [the West and groups based outside of Syria].The internal opposition — the opposition I call the patriotic progressive opposition inside Syria — will ultimately agree to such an initiative.
Unfortunately, the rest of the opposition, those who are organising the armed gangs, I don’t think it is in their interest to accept such an initiative.”