Arms supplies to all sides of Syrian conflict should be halted - Putin
It is necessary that arms imports to all sides in the Syrian conflict are halted, Russias President Vladimir Putin said in Hannover, adding that Russia is ready to discuss this.
As for Syria we dont have a solution yet. What do I think should be done? Halt arms import to the country, but to all sides of the conflict, he said at the annual industrial fair in Hannover.
Responding to the allegations of Russia supplying weapons to Syria, Putin said, We supply the legitimate regime. This is not prohibited by international law.
Moscow has repeatedly said that it is only fulfilling contracts that are already signed, which includes sending only defensive weapons.
On Friday, talking to German press, the president cited a New York Times report according to which rebels have recently received 3.5 tons of weapon and ammunition.
There are international legal norms stating that it is unacceptable to supply arms to the armed groups that strive to destabilize the situation in a certain country with the use of arms, Putin said, describing the situation in Syria as a disaster and a catastrophe.
This has to stop, he concluded.
Earlier Putin said that French President Francois Hollande had offered several interesting ideas on how to solve the Syrian crisis when he visited Moscow in February, and Russia is ready to try to realize them.
The civil conflict has been unfolding in Syria for over two years now as rebels attempt to displace the countrys ruling President Bashar Assad.
According to UN estimates over 70,000 civilians died in the violence.
Arms supplies to all sides of Syrian conflict should be halted - Putin ? RT News
Putin talks to German TV: FULL TEXT
Putin talks to German TV: FULL TEXT ? RT Russian politics
the part about Syria:
JS: Mr president, our time is almost up, but I would like to draw your attention to another crisis area that raises great concerns in Germany that is Syria. Hundreds of people die there every day. Your stance and the stance of the West in the UN Security Council obviously differed.
I would like to ask you the following. How do you see the opportunities for stopping the bloodshed? What are the Russian authorities doing, what is the Russian Government doing to finally put an end to this bloodshed?
Putin: I think that we should seek an immediate cessation of hostilities, of shelling from both sides, and a cessation of arms supplies.
We often hear: "Russia is supplying arms to Assad." First of all, there are no bans on arms supplies to incumbent legitimate governments. Secondly, only recently the opposition has received 3.5 tons of arms and munitions through the airports near Syria. This is the information published by the American media, I believe, by The New York Times. It has to be stopped.
However, I would like to stress once again and I believe it is extremely important, there is international law. There are international legal norms stating that it is inadmissible to supply arms to the armed groups that strive to destabilize the situation in a certain country with the use of arms. Such norms exist and they remain in force; nobody abolished them. So, when they say that Assad is fighting against his own people, we need to remember that this is the armed part of the opposition. What is going on is a massacre, this is a disaster, a catastrophe. It has to be stopped. It is necessary to bring all the warring parties to the negotiation table. I believe that this is the first step that has to be done, and then it is necessary to elaborate further steps during a discussion, which is important in our view.
I have already said it in public and I would like to tell you this, so that your viewers also know about our real position. We do not think that Assad should leave today, as our partners suggest. In this case, tomorrow we will have to decide what to do and where to go. We have done it in many countries. To be precise, our Western partners have. And it is unclear where Libya will go. In fact, it has already split into three parts. We do not want to have the situation of the same difficulty as we still have in Iraq. We do not want to have the situation of the same difficulty as in Yemen, and so on.
Therefore, we believe that it is necessary to bring everyone to the negotiation table so that all warring parties could reach an agreement on how their interests will be protected and in which way they will participate in the future governance of the country. And then they will work together on the implementation of this plan with due guarantees of the international community.
By the way, at the recent forum in Geneva (a few months ago) an agreement was reached on this issue, but later our Western partners unfortunately went back on these agreements. We believe that it is necessary to work hard and search for mutually acceptable solutions.
Recently, we have received Mr Hollande, President of the French Republic. I think he has some interesting ideas that can be implemented, but it requires some diplomatic work. We are ready to support these ideas. We need to try and put them into practice.
It is necessary that arms imports to all sides in the Syrian conflict are halted, Russias President Vladimir Putin said in Hannover, adding that Russia is ready to discuss this.
As for Syria we dont have a solution yet. What do I think should be done? Halt arms import to the country, but to all sides of the conflict, he said at the annual industrial fair in Hannover.
Responding to the allegations of Russia supplying weapons to Syria, Putin said, We supply the legitimate regime. This is not prohibited by international law.
Moscow has repeatedly said that it is only fulfilling contracts that are already signed, which includes sending only defensive weapons.
On Friday, talking to German press, the president cited a New York Times report according to which rebels have recently received 3.5 tons of weapon and ammunition.
There are international legal norms stating that it is unacceptable to supply arms to the armed groups that strive to destabilize the situation in a certain country with the use of arms, Putin said, describing the situation in Syria as a disaster and a catastrophe.
This has to stop, he concluded.
Earlier Putin said that French President Francois Hollande had offered several interesting ideas on how to solve the Syrian crisis when he visited Moscow in February, and Russia is ready to try to realize them.
The civil conflict has been unfolding in Syria for over two years now as rebels attempt to displace the countrys ruling President Bashar Assad.
According to UN estimates over 70,000 civilians died in the violence.
Arms supplies to all sides of Syrian conflict should be halted - Putin ? RT News
Putin talks to German TV: FULL TEXT
Putin talks to German TV: FULL TEXT ? RT Russian politics
the part about Syria:
JS: Mr president, our time is almost up, but I would like to draw your attention to another crisis area that raises great concerns in Germany that is Syria. Hundreds of people die there every day. Your stance and the stance of the West in the UN Security Council obviously differed.
I would like to ask you the following. How do you see the opportunities for stopping the bloodshed? What are the Russian authorities doing, what is the Russian Government doing to finally put an end to this bloodshed?
Putin: I think that we should seek an immediate cessation of hostilities, of shelling from both sides, and a cessation of arms supplies.
We often hear: "Russia is supplying arms to Assad." First of all, there are no bans on arms supplies to incumbent legitimate governments. Secondly, only recently the opposition has received 3.5 tons of arms and munitions through the airports near Syria. This is the information published by the American media, I believe, by The New York Times. It has to be stopped.
However, I would like to stress once again and I believe it is extremely important, there is international law. There are international legal norms stating that it is inadmissible to supply arms to the armed groups that strive to destabilize the situation in a certain country with the use of arms. Such norms exist and they remain in force; nobody abolished them. So, when they say that Assad is fighting against his own people, we need to remember that this is the armed part of the opposition. What is going on is a massacre, this is a disaster, a catastrophe. It has to be stopped. It is necessary to bring all the warring parties to the negotiation table. I believe that this is the first step that has to be done, and then it is necessary to elaborate further steps during a discussion, which is important in our view.
I have already said it in public and I would like to tell you this, so that your viewers also know about our real position. We do not think that Assad should leave today, as our partners suggest. In this case, tomorrow we will have to decide what to do and where to go. We have done it in many countries. To be precise, our Western partners have. And it is unclear where Libya will go. In fact, it has already split into three parts. We do not want to have the situation of the same difficulty as we still have in Iraq. We do not want to have the situation of the same difficulty as in Yemen, and so on.
Therefore, we believe that it is necessary to bring everyone to the negotiation table so that all warring parties could reach an agreement on how their interests will be protected and in which way they will participate in the future governance of the country. And then they will work together on the implementation of this plan with due guarantees of the international community.
By the way, at the recent forum in Geneva (a few months ago) an agreement was reached on this issue, but later our Western partners unfortunately went back on these agreements. We believe that it is necessary to work hard and search for mutually acceptable solutions.
Recently, we have received Mr Hollande, President of the French Republic. I think he has some interesting ideas that can be implemented, but it requires some diplomatic work. We are ready to support these ideas. We need to try and put them into practice.
