Russia blames opposition and against referring Syria crisis to ICC

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MOSCOW - Russia on Wednesday condemned blasts that killed 87 people in the Syrian city of Aleppo and blamed the explosions on "terrorists" it said were seeking revenge for losses in the conflict with government forces.

Each side in Syria's 22-month-old conflict blamed the other for Tuesday's blasts at the university, located in a government-held area of the northern city, Syria's most populous. Russia said foes of President Bashar al-Assad were responsible.

"We condemn the latest mass killing of innocent people in Syria in the most decisive way," the Russian Foreign Ministry said, adding that the entire international community should take "a similarly uncompromising position toward terrorism."

"It is clear that this was a ruthless, bloody provocation, revenge by terrorists for significant losses they have sustained in the confrontation with government forces," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

"We particularly note that this terrorist attack took place in an atmosphere in which normal life had begun to gradually return to the majority of the city's districts," Zakharova said.

Russia reiterated calls for an end to the conflict and the search for a resolution based on an agreement reached by global powers in Geneva last June which called for creation of a transitional government. Russia says Assad's exit from power must not be a precondition for a settlement deal.

Opposes referring Syrian to ICC

Earlier, permanent UN Security Council member Russia said it opposed an effort by dozens of countries to refer the Syrian crisis to the International Criminal Court (ICC), calling the initiative "ill-timed and counterproductive".

More than 50 countries asked the Security Council on Monday to refer the conflict in Syria to the court, which prosecutes people for genocide and war crimes, in a letter saying the move would "send a clear signal to the Syrian authorities". Russia, which like China and the United States is not an ICC member, said the referral would not help end the civil war.

"We believe this initiative is ill-timed and counterproductive to resolving the main task at this moment: an immediate end to the bloodshed in Syria," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Both Syria's government and those fighting it have been accused of committing atrocities in the 21-month-old conflict, in which 60,000 people have been killed, but the United Nations says the government and its allies have been more culpable.

Russia has used its veto power to block three Western-backed UN Security Council resolutions aimed at putting pressure on Syria's President Bashar al-Assad or pushing him from power. It says his exit must not be a precondition for a peace deal.

Syria, a major Russian weapons customer, is not a party to the Rome Statute, which set up the ICC, so the only way the court can investigate the situation is if it receives a referral from the Security Council.