Russia will not deliver Yak-130 fighter planes
to Syria while the situation there remains "unresolved", the
country's service for military cooperation said on Monday, according to the RIA
news agency.
"In the current situation talking about deliveries of airplanes to Syria
is premature," Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, deputy director of the service, told
journalists at the Farnborough Airshow, RIA said.
Russia reportedly signed an order to deliver 40 fighter-trainer jets at the end
of last year, despite controversy surrounding its arms sales to violence-torn
Syria.
Separately, the Dutch foreign minister said he and his British counterpart had discussed stepping up sanctions against Syria to hasten an end to 16 months of conflict in the country.
"We are reflecting on, for instance, stepping up the sanctions," Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said after a meeting with William Hague, the British foreign secretary.
"There can be no future for Syria with Assad in power," Hague said.
Also on Monday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he does not fear
that he might share the fate of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, killed after
capture, or Hosni Mubarak, the toppled Egyptian president sentenced to life
imprisonment.
In an interview with Germany's ARD network aired on Sunday, Assad
accused the United States, Saudi Arabia, Turkey
and Qatar
of backing "terrorists" trying to topple his government, and said he
was still in power because he had the support of his people.
Assad said that most of the victims
of the 16-month-old uprising were supporters of the government.
"From the list that we
have, from the names that we have, the highest percentage are people who are
killed by gangs, different kinds of gangs ... If you talk about the supporters
of the government - the victims from the security and the army - are more than
the civilians."
Asked if he feared that he might
share the fate of Gaddafi, who was killed shortly after his capture, Assad
said:"Describing what
happened to Al Gaddafi, this is savage, this is crime. Whatever he did,
whatever he was, nobody in the world can accept what happened, to kill somebody
like this."
"What happened to
Mubarak is different. It's a trial. Any citizen, when he watches a trial on TV
- he would think that he won't to be in that position. The answer is: Don't do
like him. Don't do like him," the 46-year-old leader said.
"But to be scared, you
have to compare. Do we have something in common? It's a completely different
situation ... You cannot compare. You cannot feel scared - maybe feel sorry or
a pity whatever."
READY TO TALK
U.N. Syria peace envoy Kofi Annan arrived in Tehran on Monday following what he described as "positive" talks with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.
Assad was holding talks in
Damascus on Monday with U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan, whose peace plan for
Syria appears moribund, in part because Assad's government says the rebels who
took up arms after peaceful protest was crushed are foreign-backed "terrorists"
who do not represent popular discontent. For his part, Annan announced his agreement with Assad on a solution proposal to Armed
Opposition
Forces.
"It shouldn't fail. It
is a very good plan," Assad said. "The main obstacle (is) that many
countries don't want (it) to succeed. So they offer political support and they
still send armaments and send money to terrorists in Syria. They want it to fail in this
way."
Assad repeated that he is
"ready to talk to anyone" about a political solution to the crisis.
"If I don't have a
support in the public, how could I stay in this position? United States
is against me, the West is against me, many regional powers and countries and
the people against me, so, how could I stay in this position? The answer is, I
still have a public support. How much, what the percentage is - this is not the
question, I don't have numbers now."
He described the Syrian rebel army
as "a mixture, an amalgam of al Qaeda, other extremists, not necessarily
al Qaeda, and outlaws who escaped the police for years, mainly smuggling drugs
from Europe to the Gulf area and others who
were sentenced in different sentences. So it's a mixture of different
things".
Some were not politically
motivated, he said. "They were paid the money, sometimes on the threat and
sometimes for certain illusions and delusions. So, not all of them are terrorists."
Assad said the United States
must bear responsibility for "terrorist" actions.
"As long as you offer
any kind of support to terrorists, you are a partner. Whether you send them
armaments or money or public support, political support in the United Nations,
anywhere. Any kind of support, this is implication."
REUTERS