‘WASHINGTON has openly declared its right to use military force unilaterally and wherever it sees fit in order to protect its own interests,’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the UN General Assembly on Saturday.
Condemning US air strikes on Syria, he added that the Western alliance, led by the US, disregards ‘the principle of the sovereign equality of states, as stipulated in the UN Charter, and trying to decide for others what is good and what is bad.’
Lavrov said: ‘The United States and the European Union supported the coup in Ukraine, blindly approved any actions taken by the self-proclaimed Kiev authorities that directed their efforts at violently suppressing the part of the Ukrainian people that rejected the attempts to impose on the country anti-constitutional order and wanted to defend its right to native language, culture and history.’
The US and its coalition did not secure a sanction from the UN Security Council in its fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq which risks a sharp deterioration of the situation in the region, Lavrov warned in an interview on Saturday.
‘It was necessary, of course, to go to the Security Council, it was necessary to cooperate with the Syrian government, which has long declared that it is ready to participate in the interaction with the international community in the fight against terrorism.
‘Well, they went around it. This is wrong, it does not add to the legitimacy of what is happening, it creates risks that any unprovoked, accidental incident can greatly escalate the situation,’ Lavrov said in an interview with Rossiya-1 broadcaster and Russia Today TV channel on Saturday.
He added: ‘I very much hope that the United States will finally realise that it is necessary not to take the role as a prosecutor, judge, and executioner everywhere, and understand that they cannot do anything acting alone.’
Earlier, Lavrov said: ‘I strongly believe that we have to engage Syria and we have to engage the Syrian government, including the fight against terrorism.’
