Via FlC
".... About half a dozen Senate staffers attended the briefing, which got pretty heated, according to congressional sources briefed on the meeting. The Russian embassy officials refused to acknowledge basic facts about the burgeoning conflict in Syria, including that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continues to kill his own people. The Russia officials also claimed that an equal number of Syrian civilians have died at the hands of the Syrian opposition.
The Russian officials also defended their country's ongoing arms sales to the Syrian regime, pointing out that there is no international law preventing such sales. (Of course, it was Russia along with China that vetoed the U.N. Security Council resolution that would have instituted such an arms embargo.)
The Russian officials also drew an equivalency between the killing of civilians in Syria and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, arguing that the U.S. government protects the Israeli government in the United Nations when its actions are criticized, the congressional sources said. The Russian officials accused the U.S. government of hypocrisy and arrogance in its public calls for better Russian behavior in Syria.
Since last year, Durbin has been actively calling for more international action and pressure on the Syrian regime to compel a halt in government sponsored violence.
"Today's meeting gave a bipartisan group of offices the opportunity to voice their serious concerns about Russia's arms sales to Syria directly to the Russian Embassy. Many on the Hill, led by Senators Durbin, Cornyn, Ayotte and Gillibrand, have strongly condemned Russia's role in the bloody conflict," Durbin's spokesman Max Gleishman told The Cable."
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian 
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