A foreign-backed militant points his weapon at government forces in an industrial area of Syria’s eastern town of Deir Ezzor, on September 2, 2013.
Russia’s State Duma says the US congressmenâ„¢s refusal to meet with a Russian parliamentary delegation to talk about Syria demonstrates Washington’s illegitimate stance on Damascus.
“By rejecting this dialogue the US Congress shows that it is afraid of demonstrating the illegitimacy of its position towards Syria,” State Duma Vice-Speaker Sergei Zheleznyak said on Thursday.
The House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner has refused to meet with Russian officials in Washington next week for discussions on Syria which has been gripped by violence since March 2011.
On Tuesday, Boehner announced his support for President Barack Obamaâ„¢s plans to conduct a military attack against Syria.
Zheleznyak, however, pledged to raise the issue of Syria at the September 6-7 London conference of G8 parliament speakers.
“I will initiate a detailed discussion of the Syrian problem with the speaker from the US Congress at the speakers’ meeting,” he said.
The rhetoric of war against Syria first gained momentum on August 21, when the militants operating inside the country and the foreign-backed Syrian opposition claimed that over a thousand people had been killed in a government chemical attack on militant strongholds on the outskirts of Damascus.
The Syrian government categorically rejected the accusation and said the militants had conducted the attack to draw in foreign military intervention.
The talk of war reached a peak on August 27 when media outlets reported US plans for likely surgical attacks.
The US lawmakers drafted a bipartisan measure on September 4 – to be voted on in the two chambers of the US Congress later – imposing a 90-day deadline for US military intervention, but banning the Å“deployment of any US troops on the ground” in Syria.
SAB/KA
Republished from: Press TV