Russia, Cuba give views on Ukraine, Syria
UNITED NATIONS -- The foreign ministers of Russia and Cuba Saturday delivered scathing critiques of U.S. support for the Ukrainian government and U.S. military action against radical Islamist terrorists in Syria.
"The U.S.-led Western alliance that portrays itself as a champion of democracy, rule of law and human rights within individual countries, acts from directly the opposite positions in the international arena," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The West rejects "the sovereign equality of states" and is "trying to decide for everyone what is good or evil."
His comments before the U.N. General Assembly came at the end of a week where leader after leader spoke of the danger that Russia's annexing of Ukrainian territory and support for pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine pose to a global system of rules and principles that are the basis of the United Nations.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez depicted Western accounts of what's happening in Ukraine and elsewhere as a result of corporate-controlled international media that "manipulate facts."
The conflict in Ukraine is the result of an "attempt to deploy NATO up to the borders of Russia" and "will have serious implications for the peace and security of Europe," Rodriguez said. Sanctions imposed on Russia to punish it for its meddling "are immoral and unjust," he said.
Rodriguez also described the three year Syrian civil war that grew out of a peaceful democracy movement the result of "foreign intervention" in Syrian affairs that he said "must come to an end."
"It is inconceivable that Western powers arm terrorist groups to pit them against one state while fighting to counter them in another state, when it comes to Iraq," Rodriguez said, referring in one sweep to Western-backed opposition forces seeking to oust Syria's Assad regime and radical extremists who've used the conflict to seize large swaths of territory straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border.
Lavrov said U.S. foreign policy of recent decades has threatened global peace.
"The sustainability of the international system has been threatened" by U.S.-led bombing campaigns in Yugoslavia, and U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Lavrov said. Only "intense diplomacy" by Russia last year averted another round of U.S. air strikes against Syria over the use of chemical weapons in its civil war, he said.
"Today Ukraine has fallen victim to such an arrogant policy," he said.
President Obama in his address here on Tuesday said Russia poured weapons and fighters into east Ukraine to create false divisions in the country after it chose to oust its pro-Russian former president and join an association agreement with the European Union. The Ukrainian people have a right to self determination, Obama said.
Lavrov, however, said the conflict is a result of U.S. and E.U. support for a "coup d'etat" in Ukraine that was led by people who sought to impose an "aggressive assault" on the rights of residents of east Ukraine.
Russia's annexation of Crimea, which occurred after Russian troops seized the territory and presided over a hastily arranged referendum, occurred because the region's population felt compelled "to take destiny in its own hands," Lavrov said.
He suggested that the community of nations take resolve to counter what he called "interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states." Lavrov described the USA as engaged in such interference when it promotes democracy, imposes unilateral sanctions and launches military action to promote U.S. interests.
In Syria, which hosts Russia's only Mediterranean naval base, Lavrov said Russia will continue to support the Assad regime against an opposition he described as Western-backed terrorists.
"We have sent large supplies of weapons to the governments of Iraq and Syria and will continue to support their fight against terror," he said.