Syria

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Education – in the House of Commons at 5:10 pm on 3 September 2012.

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Photo of William Hague William Hague The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 5:10, 3 September 2012

There are several factors at work. One, of course, is that there is some regret in Russian Government circles that Russia abstained on the Security Council resolution that authorised the use of all necessary measures to protect the population of Libya. That is reflected in its approach to any subsequent parallel situation, even though in this case neither we nor anyone else has advocated a military intervention of the sort that we mounted in Libya. Russia is very reluctant to allow any resolution that it sees as leading to any such thing, despite all the reassurances we have given both directly and at the Security Council.

On the right hon. Gentleman’s point about Russia’s assessment of its strategic interests, it is also possible that it has a different analysis of what is likely to happen in Syria. Our analysis, which I expressed in the statement and which is common in western nations, is that the Assad regime is doomed and that having spilt so much blood and presided over such a catastrophe it is not possible for such a regime to recover its authority or for Syria to return to any stable position while it continues in power. On that point, the Russian analysis might be different and that will lead Russia to a different policy position.