Spiritual Forum

Moscow has criticized the United States for refusing to endorse a statement of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) condemning a recent terrorist attack on the Russian embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus.

“We disseminated a standard text that the Security Council has used multiple times when there were terrorist acts in Europe, Africa and other areas of the world,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a speech at the Russian lower house of parliament on Wednesday, Russia's Sputnik news agency reported.

The Russian embassy in Damascus came under mortar shelling twice on Tuesday morning and the UNSC drafted a brief statement afterwards condemning the attack as a terrorist one. However, the US rejected the wording and purposed to put the blame on the Syrian government which is “responsible for security of embassies and consulates,” rather than classifying the shelling as a terrorist attack.

“Unfortunately, our American colleagues, who are interested in... fighting terrorism, refused to accept the wording that described this as a terrorist act,” Lavrov said, adding, "It is sad that our American colleagues in this case in fact do not side with those who fight against terrorism and condemn terror. Once again we have to speak about double standards.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Lavrov said that the US had refused to host a high-profile Russian delegation for talks on the crisis in Syria, adding that Washington, in an official reply, said that they could not “send a delegation to Moscow and they can't host a delegation in Washington either.”

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin had censured Washington for its mindless policies vis-à-vis Syria.

Russia launched its first airstrikes against the positions of the Takfiri terrorists in Syria on September 30 at the request of the Syrian government.

Assisting Iraqi Kurds

Meanwhile, Lavrov expressed his country’s readiness to provide Iraqi Kurdswith “military and technical” assistance in their fight against the Daesh Takfiri group if the Kurds can secure the Iraqi government’s consent to receive such assistance.

The Takfiri terrorist group seized some territories in western and northern Iraq in 2014 and claimed dozens of bombing attacks on areas outside of its control across the country, including those in central and eastern provinces.

In Syria, the foreign-backed conflict, which was ignited in March 2011, has so far claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and left over one million injured, according to the United Nations.