
Source:
China Daily
Boris Dolgov
Russia vetoed the United Nations
Security Council resolution, which sought to blame President Bashar
al-Assad for the violence against civilians in
Syria
and urged him to step down, because it did not correspond to the real
situation in Syria, where the majority of Syrian people, 60 percent,
support his government.
I saw for myself demonstrations by tens
of thousands of people who support President al-Assad when I visited
Syria in August 2011 and in January 2012. Many of the international
media, such as CNN, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, are waging an information
war against Syria. They portray al-Assad's regime as suppressing the
people and shooting peaceful protestors. This is not true. The real
cause of the violence in Syria is the terrorist activities of some
anti-government groups, which are armed and financed from abroad. This
has already resulted in the deaths of 3,000 civilians and 2,000 soldiers
and policemen.
If passed, the UN Security Council
resolution would have given the leaders of NATO countries the excuse to
begin military intervention in Syria. The consequences of such
intervention, as was shown by NATO's military intervention in Libya,
would be the deaths of thousands of Syrian civilians, and the
opportunity for radical Islamic groups to increase their influence in
the country. This would likely lead to civil war or the disintegration
of Syria into five or more small states divided on religious and
national lines. It would also result in the seizure of the Syrian
arsenal by radical Islamic groups, who could then use them against the
countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and against Russia.
The United States, the United Kingdom,
France and Israel, as well as Turkey and the Arabic monarchies of the
Persian Gulf, which now play a leading role in the League of Arab
States, pursue a policy of pressuring the Syrian leadership to stand
down and support the external Syrian National Council and armed
opposition groups in Syria with the aim of overthrowing the al-Assad
regime.