Moscow urges to stop creating a negative information background around the upcoming May 26 presidential elections in Syria, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said on Wednesday, speaking at a Security Council meeting held in video format.
"Despite all the difficulties, the Syrian authorities are making efforts to ensure the functioning of the state system," he stressed. - "However, it is depressing that some countries are resentful of the very idea of the upcoming elections and have already rushed to declare them illegitimate".
"We urge you to stop creating a negative information background around the future voting, which has nothing to do with the work of the Constitutional Committee," said the Russian ambassador. He reminded that "interference in the internal affairs of Syria is unacceptable and contrary to the existing norms of international law."
So far, 51 candidates have applied to participate in the elections scheduled for May 26, including incumbent President Bashar al-Assad. Syria's previous presidential election was held in 2014. The Syrian Arab Republic's constitution, adopted in 2012, limits presidential terms to two consecutive seven-year terms.
The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Turkey do not consider the upcoming Syrian presidential elections free and fair and call on the international community not to normalize relations with Damascus based on their results.
Nebenzya also said that humanitarian aid in Syria would soon be unable to reach those in need due to a lack of fuel. "Necessary medical aid is coming to the northeast. But now the reason for the slowdown of humanitarian workers "on the ground" is the growing fuel crisis. And we are talking about a country with rich oil deposits," he noted.
Soon Syria, along with the UN and its partner NGOs, will face a paradoxical situation when humanitarian aid arrives in the country will lie in storage only because the lack of fuel makes it impossible to get it to the people who need it," warned the ambassador. - "The same fuel that is siphoned off from the Syrian subsoil in the interests of the US occupation authorities in the north-east of the country".
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Zuma \ TASS
Based on materials from TASS