Putin: Syria Rebels Used Chemical Weapons to Provoke Intervention

Local Editor

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an editorial for The New York Times that "it is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts has become commonplace for the US."

Putin, however, has welcomed Barack Obama's decision to develop a compromise on Syria.
In a lengthy piece titled A Plea for Caution from Russia, the Russian President reminded that the United Nations was created as a universal instrument of preventing devastating wars.
"No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage," Putin wrote. "This is possible if influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorization."

Putin said that while no one doubts that poison gas was indeed used in Syria, there is "every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons."
"Reports that militants are preparing another attack - this time against "Israel"- cannot be ignored," he added.

From the very beginning of the crisis, Russia has advocated a political solution according to international law.
"We are not protecting the Syrian government, but international law," he said, and noted that "it is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States."

The world increasingly sees America not as "a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan "you're either with us or against us," the Russian President stated.
On the other hand, a successful political compromise on Syria would "open the door to cooperation on other critical issues" between Russia and the US.
However, having studied Obama's address to the American nation on Tuesday, Putin disagreed with a "case he made on American exceptionalism."

"It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too."
"We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal," Putin said in conclusion of his New York Times editorial.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team