British foreign minister William Hague Thursday urged Russia and Iran to use their influence over Syria to achieve a peaceful end to the bloody 15-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
Hague met his Russian and Iranian counterparts in Kabul on the sidelines of a conference on the future of Afghanistan and stressed the need for the implementation of a peace plan proposed by international peace envoy Kofi Annan.
Russia is a long-term ally of Syria and has refused to stop supplying arms to Assad’s regime, which is engaged in a bloody fight against the uprising that erupted in March 2011.
Monitors say more than 14,000 people have been killed. Moscow came under fierce criticism from Western and Arab countries for vetoing two UN Security Council resolutions that would have sanctioned Assad for his use of force.
“The foreign secretary asked Russia to use its full influence on the Syrian regime to ensure a peaceful resolution of the situation through a political process,” Hague’s ministry said in a statement.
Hague told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov he welcomed in principle Moscow’s plan for an international conference on Syria, the British Foreign Office said, but warned that Iran’s presence was “probably unworkable”.
