Russia Changes UN Security Council Language On Syria-Turkey Conflict

By Maya Shwayder | October 04 2012 4:51 PM

Russia, one of the foremost backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, recently threw a small hissy-fit in the chambers of the U.N. and got some language changed in a statement condemning the Syrian attack on Turkey, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Reuters

United Nations Building in New York, N.Y.
Reuters

Turkey’s military struck targets inside Syria on Wednesday in response to a mortar bomb fired from Syrian territory which killed five Turkish civilians, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s office said in a statement.

Russia purposefully blocked the approval of a statement because of the language, and proposed a weaker text calling for “restraint” on the border, removing any references to breaches of international law, Reuters said.

Reuters obtained a copy of the original statement that said “The Security Council called on the parties to exercise restraint and avoid military clashes which could lead to a further escalation of the situation in the border area between Syria and Turkey.”

The new language says, “reduce tensions and forge a path toward a peaceful resolution of the Syrian crisis,” and removed the sentence, “such violations of international law constitute a serious threat to international peace and security.”

Either way, the statement probably won’t have that much effect -- as Western diplomats at the meeting reportedly pointed out, the statement was non-binding.