Posted By Josh Rogin
Saturday, February 4, 2012 - 10:42 AM
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MUNICH - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave opposing public speeches Saturday on what should be done in Syria, and then took their dispute behind closed doors in a heated bilateral meeting, in advance of Saturday's U.N. Security Council action in New York.
"As a tyrant in Damascus brutalizes his own people, the U.S. and Europe stand shoulder to shoulder," Clinton said in her speech at the 2012 Munich Security Conference. "We are united, alongside the Arab League, in demanding an end to the bloodshed and a democratic future for Syria. And we are hopeful that at 10 AM eastern standard time in New York, the security council will express the will of the international community."
Well, the 10 AM deadline has come and gone, but State Department officials insist the U.S. is committed to holding a vote on the latest draft resolution on the situation on Syria today, despite persistent Russian concerns over the text, which were outlined by Lavrov in his speech only minutes after Clinton left the stage.
Lavrov said that Russia stands by the Syrian people but not the "armed groups" in Syria that he alleged were contributing to the violence. He said Russia would not agree to any resolution that amounts to outside interference or presupposes the political outcome in Syria other than supporting a dialogue between the two sides.
"The problem is, the peaceful protesters have our full support, but they are being used by the armed groups, who create trouble. And this is reaching quite dangerous proportions," Lavrov said.
Lavrov said Russia had two main problems with the current draft of the resolution. He said the current draft resolution "left the door open to military intervention to the outside," because it does not include a Russian drafted statement that would explicitly say a military intervention is not authorized.
He also said the draft resolution seeks to prejudge the results of a national Syrian dialogue because it refers to the Arab League Initiative's report and says the process should follow the Arab's League's schedule for resolution of the transition of power in Syria.
"If this resolution is adopted and Assad doesn't go, we asked the Americans and the Europeans ‘What is the game plan?' They say, ‘Well in 15 days we'll consider this issue again in the security council.' My question is, ‘After that, what are you going to propose?" Lavrov said.
"It's not a serious policy," he insisted.
Lavrov heavily criticized the Arab League monitoring mission and defended Russian arms sales to the Syrian regime, which continue to this day. Lavrov said the U.N. charter does not allow interference in internal domestic affairs and that without Russian support, any plan devised in the security council would not be viable.
The Cable asked Lavrov whether Russia was concerned about ending up on the wrong side of history in Russia by supporting Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
"We are not friends or allies of Assad," Lavrov responded, "We try to stick to our responsibilities as permanent members of the security council and the security council doesn't by definition engage in the internal affairs of states, it's about maintaining international peace and security."
The Cable followed Lavrov out of the conference hall and into his bilateral meeting with Clinton. Clinton was joined in the meeting by Director of Policy Planning Jake Sullivan, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher, NATO Ambassador Ivo Daalder, and Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
A senior State Department official said the meeting went longer than planned, 45 minutes, and two thirds of that time was spent discussing the U.N. Security Council situation regarding Syria.
"The secretary and the foreign minister had a very vigorous discussion," the official said. "The secretary made clear that the U.S. feels strongly that the U.N. Security Council should vote today."
The official would not going into the details of the bilateral discussion on Syria but said it's safe to assume that Clinton and Lavrov did not resolve their differences over the way ahead.
"Foreign Minister Lavrov did not dispute the urgency of the situation and the action now moves to New York," the official said.
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EXPLORE:ARAB WORLD, EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, DEMOCRACY, DIPLOMACY, FREEDOM, HUMAN RIGHTS, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, RUSSIA, STATE DEPARTMENT, SYRIA, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY, UNITED NATIONS 
SHAME ON RUSSIA - SYRIANS WON'T FORGET
SHAME ON RUSSIA. SHAME ON RUSSIA. PUTIN IS SCARED THAT HIS PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO RISE AGAINST HIS RULE AND NOW HE IS STANDING AGAINST THE SYRIAN PEOPLE AND WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR CONTINUED BLOODSHED. THE SYRIAN PEOPLE WILL NOT FORGET ONCE THEY ACHIEVE LIBERATION.
The US Government has become a corrupt puppet of the current world financial elite, people like General Electric's CEO, Jeffery Imelt, Obama's economic czar who feels he is truly a "world citizen" and is busy exporting Amrican manufacturing jobs to China. If the corrupt US Government wants to promote freedom the first thing they can do is stop supporting failed and incompetent banks and industrial corporations with US taxpayers money. They could half the size of the US Miltary and still be spending more on defense than any other country in the world. They could enforce ethics laws against corrupt Senators and Congressmen and institute a program of public campaign finance where leaders could be chosen on the integrity of their ideas instead of the money they raise from corrupt interest groups, which is legalized bribery. The United States has no vital interest in attacking Syria or Iran, except to promote the interests of the world's financial elite and to serve Israel, which is one of the biggest receipients of US financial support in the world and wants to dominate the mideast politically and militarily, while they dominate US foreign policy by bribing Congress. Hillary is a typical politician and corporate stooge who will go whatever way the financial wind blows. History will show the United States was corrupted from within by private interests which subverted the common purpose of the State. If the US attacks Iran or Syria, Russia and China will intervene to support Iran and Syria, knowing full well they are next. Former British Prime Minister William Pitt in 1770 stated "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it". I think we can see the truth of this statement in full force in Amercan politics today.
To be believable, Hillary would be better off blaming this on some Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.
She takes her orders from the CFR
She's just a CFR puppet. The Russian has more credibility.
This isn't a Freudian slip --
Not just another pithy quip --
But Hill in the pic --
(This isn't a trick) --
Looks like Alvin, the Munk of Chip.
I'm sure that if Hillary could have just given Lavrov another Reset button everything would be just fine now.
Would you send your son to die for Syria?
If your answer is "No," then you fundamentally agree with Russia. You can bloviate all you want, but unless the freedom of Syrians is important enough to you to sacrifice your own child, you are all hat & no cattle.
All Russia is pointing out is that the ridiculously silly Western policy of "Stop! Or we'll say 'Stop!' again!" (in 15 days), is just that - silly, infantile, arrogant, naive and dumb.
What will happen if Syria does not do what the West wants? This is an adult question. It has to do with: 'What are the ramifications?' consequences and ramifications are things not understood by the Left. Example: we have 9 bazillion gun laws, but the Left wont throw people in jail.
Russia is right: America has proved that she will not act, so why talk? America now talks loudly & carries a twig.
American farmers overthrew the most powerful army in the works. If Syrians want freedom, let THEM fight & die for it. What's wrong with that?
Hillary Clinton, like her boss, is dealing with people who are smarter than they are. Yet another example, quite frankly, that the Russians are thinking circles around these clowns. Unlike us, it appears Russia is capable of learning from a mistake, eg., their own Afghanistan debacle back in the 80's. The morons in Syria need to work out their own problems. It's their business... Taxpayers are tired of paying for other people's nation-building. And, if some big corporation is inconvenienced by this position, well, let them just work it out themselves since, as best I can recall, I don't remember ever having received a check from any of them.
One wonders why the Right always thinks a military action is better than just letting history happen. Dumb.
Basically the bloody 20th Century can be seen as a history of America rejecting Darwin. Had we been smart enough to stay out of WW1:
No ETO in WW2
No Weimar republic
No Hitler
No USSR (a strong Germany to her west would have prevented it)
No violent collapse of the Ottoman Empire
No Western countries drawing lines on a map creating fantasy "nation" like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, etc.
No modern-day France (no Vietnam, Algeria, khomenei, 'Islamic Republic of Iran)
No PRC (no USSR to foment a communist china)
No Korean war.
America needs to accept that Darwin was correct.
It is just another in a never-ending line of commentary on our s hoops that we raise "leaders" as dumb, ignorant and naive as we do.
You forgot to add, if we had done as you suggest, we would all be speaking German now.
Nope. They might be speaking German across europe but that's the way it goes. But they never would've attacked America. To think otherwise is not to understand hitler's aims or his lack of understanding of America's actions.
Yours is just another comment showing the utter failure of our school unions to put education first.
She looks like a woodchuck. Oh, I have offended wookchuck-sorry. Also, a woodchuck is smarter than she is. Anyone who thinks she still is "the smartest women in the world" is nuts. Look at the mess she and nobama have created in this world.
I am curious if Russia and China would have to block this vote no matter
the concessions. Not only are the selling of arms taking place, (at least
from Russia) I would suspect it would be in both of their interests to
more or less 'force' the hand of the United States to once again directly
interfere and once again commit resources and treasure to further
wear down a war-weary military and nation. We spend more and more
money on 'doing the right thing', all the while they sit back and do nothing.
We are putting ourselves in a position of further weakening our economy,
wearing ourselves out on war, and putting them (both Russia and
China) in superior positions both politically and economically in the
long run. To me, Russia nor China both do not give a whit about human
rights or the 'peoples' of Syria. They are in it for the long haul to
ultimately wear down a perceived enemy (USA) to prepare for future
confrontations.
John Hudson reports on national security and foreign policy from the Pentagon to Foggy Bottom, the White House to Embassy Row, for The Cable.
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