Envoy: Russia Supports Assad’s Popularly-Elected Gov’t

Moscow’s Ambassador to Tehran Levan Djagarian said Russia continues strong support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad because his government is legal and enjoys popular support.
“Bashar Assad’s government is a legal government elected through people’s vote,” Djagarian told FNA on Monday.

He noted that Russia is against those governments that are engaged in activities against Bashar Assad.

The Russian envoy pointed to a series of meetings held in Geneva to resolve the Syrian crisis, and reiterated that his country did not play any role in the failure of those meetings.

“Russia and Iran have always tried to stop the attacks in Syria and establish peace in that country,” Djagarian said.

The Russian ambassador indicated the positive role of the Friends of Syria Conference held in Tehran on Sunday, and said his country’s representative was present in the meeting.

Djagarian said that the countries which support the opponents of the Syrian government are the main cause of war and lack of tranquility in Syria through their financial and arms supports.

Representatives from over 30 countries participated the 2nd Friends of Syria Conference in Tehran on Sunday.
In their final statement, the participants also condemned the efforts made by a number of countries to send the Syrian file to the International Criminal Court and termed it a deviating move to demolish the climate of the presidential election in Syria.

The statement, meantime, praised Russia and China for opposing approval of the draft resolution in this concern.

The statement also called for formation of an international technical and specialized group, which respects national sovereignty of Syria, and described it as a correct way to settle the over 3-year-long human crisis in the Middle-Eastern country.

The final statement of the conference included 12 articles and three annexations.

Iran held the first ‘Friends of Syria Conference’ in the presence of the chairpersons of the foreign policy commissions of Iran, Algiers, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Russia in March this year.

Resolutions of the Syrian crisis through diplomacy and immediate end to violation of human rights were the main topics of the first conference.