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Beware British War Propaganda: The Case of Sergei Lavrov in Tehran
14 June 2012
International media were full of the report June 13 that, during his press conference in Tehran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had accused Washington of supplying arms to the Syrian rebels. Subsequently, according to Middle East Online, the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow said Lavrov’s statement was mistranslated, and that the minister had only said Washington was supplying arms "in the region." What is confirmed is that, according to Ria Novosti, Lavrov said that Russia is completing earlier weapons contracts with Syria exclusively for air-defense systems, according to Russian news agencies. The shipments are "anti-air defense systems" that "in no way violates international laws," Lavrov said. He then added: "We are not delivering to Syria, or anywhere else, items that could be used against peaceful demonstrators. In this we differ from the United States, which regularly delivers riot control equipment in the region, including a recent delivery to a Persian Gulf country. But for some reason the Americans consider this to be fine." By the conclusion of today, Bloomberg News, among others, were reporting that a review of the audio recording confirmed a mistranslations of Lavrov’s remarks. |