Russia has presented an alternative draft resolution on Syria at the UN Security Council, the Russian mission to the United Nations told journalists.
“After the voting on the French draft resolution, an alternative Russian document will be considered,” the mission said.
The UN Security Council will vote at 3 p.m. EDT (19:00 GMT) on Saturday on a draft resolution from France that seeks to establish a ceasefire in the Syrian city of Aleppo, Russia’s mission to the United Nations has confirmed.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Friday that the French draft contains a number of unacceptable provisions.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced last month that Paris would present a resolution to the Security Council aimed at ending the violence in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo.
On Friday, Ayrault travelled to Washington having visited Moscow, in a bid to persuade both sides to adopt the resolution and impose a new ceasefire in Aleppo.
Russia says it will veto a French-drafted UN resolution calling for a cease-fire in Aleppo and the grounding of all aircraft, which would include Moscow’s, over the Syrian city.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters that the Security Council should instead rally around the proposal made by UN envoy Staffan de Mistura for an al-Qaida-linked militant faction to leave Aleppo in exchange for a halt to Russian and Syrian government bombardment.
He told reporters after de Mistura briefed the council Friday behind closed doors that “the French proposal is very hastily put together, and I frankly believe that this is designed not to make progress” in ending the current stalemate “but to cause a Russian veto.”
Churkin said it was “unprecedented” that the 15-member council would ask one of the five permanent members to limit its activities, in this case requiring the Russian military to stop flights.
Source: Agencies
