Syria asks UN to prevent ‘any aggression’ from U.S.September 2, 2013 - 12:38 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Syria has asked the United Nations to prevent "any aggression" against Syria following a call over the weekend by U.S. President Barack Obama for punitive strikes against the Syrian military for last month's chemical weapons attack, Reuters reported. Washington says more than 1,400 people, many of them children, were killed in the world's worst use of chemical arms since Iraq's Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds in 1988. U.S. military action will be put to a vote in Congress, which ends its summer recess on September 9, giving President Bashar al-Assad time to prepare the ground for any assault and try to rally international support against the use of force. In a letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon and President of the Security Council Maria Cristina Perceval, Syrian UN envoy Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari called on "the UN Secretary General to shoulder his responsibilities for preventing any aggression on Syria and pushing forward reaching a political solution to the crisis in Syria", state news agency SANA said on Monday, Sept 2. He called on the Security Council to "maintain its role as a safety valve to prevent the absurd use of force out of the frame of international legitimacy". Ja'afari said the United States should "play its role, as a peace sponsor and as a partner to Russia in the preparation for the international conference on Syria and not as a state that uses force against whoever opposes its policies". Syria denies using chemical weapons and accuses rebel groups, who have been fighting for more than two years to topple Assad, of using the banned weapons. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that tests showed sarin nerve gas was fired on rebel-held areas on August 21. Ja'afari said Kerry had "adopted old stories fabricated by terrorists" based on fake photos from the Internet. Top stories Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Moscow on April 22 to hold talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". Partner news | International cybercrime ringleaders arrested in Armenia, Ukraine Europol, Europe's crime agency, has arrested four ringleaders of several cybercrime networks that used botnets. Armenia skips CSTO Defense Ministers meeting A meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization countries began in Almaty. Armenian, Iranian foreigh policy chief talk over the phone The Foreign Minister of Armenia once again expressed condolences to his counterpart on the death of the President of Iran. Armenia, U.S. customs authorities to boost assistance with new deal The government has approved an agreement with the U.S. government on mutual assistance between the customs authorities. |