Saudi: Egypt stance on Syria resolution ‘painful’

The Saudi envoy to the UN, Abdullah al-Muallami, dubbed Egypt’s stance kowtowing to Russia on a UN resolution about Syria, and called it as “painful.”

Russia - with three others, including Egypt - on Saturday vetoed a draft French UN Security Council resolution on Syria, which demanded an end to air strikes on Aleppo and military overflights.

“Stances by Sengal and Malaysia were much closer to the agreed Arab decision,” said Muallami, in comparison to the Arab League-member Egypt.

The envoy said it was a “farce” to see a decision vetoed by four members when it received a “strong” backing by 11 members at the Security Council.

“It is a dark day for the Syrian people,” he said. “But Syrians do not know darkness. They will win.”

However, the head of Egypt’s delegate to the United Nations, Ambassador Amr Abu Atta, said that Egypt supports all efforts to stop the tragedy of the Syrian people, and that the vote was based on the failure of the two sides of the security council to reach a permanent decision.

Atta stressed that "Egypt’s voted is in favor of stopping the targeting of Syrian civilians and to support humanitarian work, as well as the cessation of hostilities, according to the Security Council resolutions."

Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that the draft would have helped Islamist militants in the Aleppo area by protecting them from aerial bombing.

In a statement, the ministry also said the French text was politicized and one-sided.

“An explicit attempt was made, by banning flights in the Aleppo area, to provide cover for the terrorists of Jabhat Al-Nusra and associated militants,” the ministry said.

After the vote, Basma Qathmati, a member from the Saudi-backed High Negotiation Committee (HNC) comprising 34 opposition groups, urged Washington to unilaterally move to disallow Russia from continuing its targeting of civilians in Aleppo.