An Official Source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that Saudi Arabia has denounced strongly and been astonished greatly by a statement issued by the Commissioner of the Russian Foreign Ministry for Human Rights on the Kingdom, which is a blatant interference, unjustified in any case in the Kingdom's affairs and simultaneously contrary to political and diplomatic principles and rules.
Denouncing this statement, which the Kingdom's Government considers as hostile, it reminds the Russian official that the Kingdom has been keen on respecting the rules of legitimacy and sovereignty and independence of States, and it has distanced itself from interfering in their internal affairs, including its keenness on non-interference in the affairs of Russia, and its policies in dealing with unrest within its borders, which has claimed the lives of many victims.
The Kingdom hopes that the issuance of such a strange statement does not aim to distract attention from the brutal and heinous massacres committed by the Syrian regime against its people with the support of known parties that impede any sincere efforts to save the blood of the Syrian people.
Dolgov was quoted by the Russian news agency Interfax telling the kingdom to “take all of the measures needed to normalize the situation in its eastern districts, prevent any confrontation there, including interfaith clashes, and guarantee the observance of generally accepted human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, peaceful demonstrations and freedom of assembly as permitted by the law.”
The Saudi interior ministry has said there were no clashes but that two people were killed by unknown assailants last Sunday in the east, where the country’s minority Muslim Shiite population is concentrated.
“The Kingdom learned with strong astonishment and surprise about the comment by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s representative on human rights which represents a blatant and unjustified intervention ... in the internal affairs of the kingdom,” SPA quoted a Foreign Ministry statement, attributed to an “official source,” as saying.
The agency said the government of Saudi Arabia condemned such comments as “hostile.”
“The kingdom hopes that this strange comment was not intended to divert attention from the savage and ugly massacres that the Syrian regime is practicing against its own people with support and backing from known parties that are obstructing any honest effort to end the bloodshed of the Syrian people.”
Russia has been accused by Syria’s opposition groups and Western nations of abetting the Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown against his own people who are seeking an end to his autocratic rule.
Western nations have proposed a resolution that would impose sanctions on the regime of Assad over the conflict, which rights activists say has cost more than 17,000 lives.