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29 March 2024

Putin no longer backs Assad: Cameron

Published
By Reuters

Britain's prime minister said on Tuesday Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear at the G20 summit in Mexico he wants President Bashar Al Assad out of power in Syria, but Putin indicated that Syrians should decide if Assad stays.

Russia has been the staunchest backer of Assad and his military crackdown against militants and protesters in Syria, including supplying arms to the Syrian government.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Putin had shifted his view of the Syrian leader during talks with U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders at the Group of 20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, and that discussions were now focused on a transition of power in Syria.

"There remain differences over sequencing and the shape of how the transition takes place but it is welcome that President Putin has been explicit that he does not want Assad remaining in charge in Syria," Cameron told reporters.

"What we need next is an agreement on a transitional leadership which can move Syria to a democratic future that protects the rights of all its communities," Cameron added.

But Putin said at his own news conference at close of G20 summit: "I feel like I have to repeat our position. We believe that nobody has the right to decide for other nations who should be brought to power, who should be removed from power."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Labrov said Cameron's statement that Putin does not want Assad to remain in power "does not correspond to reality."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Cameron were present with Obama for the talks with Putin.

Meanwhile, the chief U.N. monitor for Syria told the Security Council that his military observers were repeatedly targeted by hostile crowds and gunfire at close range last week before his decision to suspend operations, U.N. diplomats said. 

General Robert Mood of Norway, chief U.N. monitor for Syria, told the 15-nation Security Council behind closed doors that his 300-strong unarmed observer force was targeted with gunfire or by hostile crowds at least 10 times last week, U.N. diplomats present at the meeting told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Mood said that "indirect fire" incidents in which gunfire struck within 300-400 meters of observers occurred on a daily basis, envoys said. Last week, nine vehicles of the observer mission, known as UNSMIS, were struck or damaged, they added.

One diplomat said Mood spoke of "several hundred indirect fire incidents."

Last week U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said that after 15 months of fighting Syria was now in the throes of a full-scale civil war. Ladsous also addressed the council and emphasized that the situation on the ground was too dangerous to allow the monitors to conduct normal patrols.

Some Western diplomats have suggested that there was little point in having UNSMIS remain in Syria when Assad's government has not only ignored Annan's peace plan but has stepped up its military assaults to seize rebel-held territory. 

UNSMIS' 90-day mandate expires on July 21 and it is unclear whether the council will extend it.
Activists said violence flared across the country on Tuesday and state media said rebels blew up two oil pipelines.

SANA news agency said an "armed terrorist group" attacked a oil derivatives pipeline linking Homs and Damascus in the Sultaniya area of southern Homs, causing a fire and heavy smoke that residents said was visible from the centre of the city.

A crude oil pipeline in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor was also blown up. SANA quoted an oil ministry source as saying pumping was expected to resume in the next few days, adding that the same pipeline had been targeted twice in the last two weeks.