By Elena Suponina A March 7 visit to Saudi Arabia was going to be Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s first foreign trip after the Russian presidential election. The purpose was to meet colleagues from the Arab Persian Gulf countries. Despite the date having been publicized, the trip ended up being postponed. What Lavrov was hoping to …
By Ziya Meral Last week, during his weekly speech to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) group in the Turkish parliament, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated his strong statements on Syria. While his call for humanitarian corridors to bring aid to Syrian people captured international attention, his talk also included an indirect yet equally strong …
By Madawi Al-Rasheed LONDON: Defeating Russia in the Arab world was a priority for Saudi Arabia even before it became a fully-fledged commitment in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The current Syrian crisis is perhaps one last opportunity to undermine Russia’s eroded sphere of influence in the region. The Saudis may think that defeating Russia this time …
By AFP CAIRO: Arab and Russian foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Saturday called for an end to the violence in Syria “whatever its source,” as they try to reach common ground on ways to resolve the deadly conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after a meeting at the Arab League headquarters on …
By Dmitry Zaks / AFP MOSCOW: Russia said Friday it opposed an “unbalanced” Washington-backed UN draft resolution on Syria because it failed to call for a simultaneous halt in violence by the government and rebels. The warning came amid tense consultations over a draft resolution aimed at showing the Damascus regime that world opinion had turned …
