Remarks to the press by Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, before the Security Council meeting on Syria
V.Churkin: We have always engaged very constructively and worked very hard in order to achieve positive results. It has not always happened that way, but this time when we expressed our concerns some of which I shared with you yesterday before we went down to our work, and they realized that those concerns were justified quite a few changed were introduced in the draft. We think now it is a satisfactory draft and we can support it.
Q: Is Russia talking to Syria about letting the monitors in?
V.Churkin: We keep contact with our Syrian colleagues here all the time so they were aware of the process and they did not raise any serious objections to what we delivered.
Q: Ambassador, are you confident that the Syrian Government will implement this resolution?
V.Churkin: Everybody has to implement because there are so many parties on the ground. As far as we are concerned we are in the constant touch with the Syrian Government. Our people has always been inviting UN humanitarians to participate in humanitarian convoys, preparing them, observing the way they proceed. That has always been our position. We realize that eastern Aleppo which has witnessed a lot of dramatic events, not much of good governance over the past few years, some UN observation over the situation there might be very helpful. However it needs to be properly organized. We will be looking forward to the work which Secretary-General needs to do under this resolution with all interested parties to prepare a proper role of UN people in eastern Aleppo in monitoring the respect for international humanitarian group.
