Cuba, Syria accuse U.S., others of aggression, terrorism in Damascus

Cuba, Syria accuse U.S., others of aggression, terrorism in Damascus
2 October, 2012 – The Guardian Nigeria

CUBA’S Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, yesterday said the United States (U.S.) is guilty of “military aggression” in Syria in a speech to the United Nations (UN) that also accused Western governments of seeking to topple the Syrian government.

The speech to the UN General Assembly, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported, was a rare show of diplomatic support for Syria’s increasingly isolated President Bashar al-Assad, whose attempt to suppress an armed rebellion has led to full-scale civil war.

Moreso, the Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem also accused the U.S. and its allies yesterday of supporting terrorism in Syria but said his government remains open to a political settlement of its civil war.

Speaking to the UN General Assembly in New York, Muallem said France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States “clearly induce and support terrorism in Syria with money, weapons and foreign fighters.”

However, he also said that President Bashar al-Assad is open to reforms if the violence stops. “We still believe in a political solution as an essential way out of the crisis,” he said.

For this to happen, he said UN members should press for an end to the “arming, financing, harbouring and training of terrorist groups.”

Washington and many of its allies accuse Syria’s government of mass human rights abuses in the ongoing struggle to put down the armed rebellion.

To Parrilla, the U.S. and European backing for the rebels amounted to “foreign military aggression which will have serious consequences for the entire Middle East region.”

“The U.S. and some European governments have decided to overthrow the Syrian government, for which they have armed, financed and trained opposition groups. They have even resorted to the use of mercenaries,” he said.

The communist island’s minister applauded Russia and China for blocking measures against Assad’s government in the UN Security Council.

“It has been impossible to manipulate the Security Council to impose the interventionist formula applied in recent warmongering adventures,” he said. …source