ZAG! Russia does another “Libya” at the UNSC

April 14, 2015

This just in: the UNSC has adopted resolution “imposes an arms embargo against the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the allied forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh”. How crazy is that?!

An international coalition of thugs lead by the Saudis and al-Qaeda is conducing a large-scale aggression against Yemen and when the Jordanians propose to slap an arms embargo on the Houthis Russia simply abstains even though the Saudis are armed to their teeth by the USA?

Worse, in a monumentally hypocritical statement the Russian UN Ambassador declared that

“We insisted that the arms embargo needs to be comprehensive; it’s well known that Yemen is awash in weapons,” Churkin said. “The adopted resolution should not be used for further escalation of the armed conflict.”

Does Churkin not know that the fully-armed Saudi military is leading an international aggression in this war?

Frankly, I am at loss for words. This Russian abstention reeks of hypocrisy and reminds me of the shameful Russian abstention on the anti-Libyan resolution in 2011. For the life of me I cannot imagine what the Russian rationale was for allowing the adoption of this resolution. Maybe it was to draw the Saudis further into a war they cannot win, but if that is the case, this is not, in my opinion, the morally or even politically appropriate thing to do, if only because of the damage suffered (yet again!) by the Russian diplomacy.

When Russia unilaterally refused to deliver the S-300s to Iran and in 2011 when Russia allowed the anti-Libyan resolution to pass, Medvedev was in power. Now, however, it is Vladimir Putin. This time he cannot argue that “the other guy did it”.

I find this latest development both very disappointing and rather frightening.

What do you think?

Cheers,

The Saker