UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – Russia’s U.N. Ambassador yesterday denounced as lies a report that he had threatened Qatar with annihilation during an argument with the Gulf state’s prime minister over a draft Security Council resolution on Syria that was vetoed by Moscow.
“There is a lie, there is a blatant lie. One has to come up with some different, stronger description,” envoy Vitaly Churkin said of the report circulating on the Internet. “It’s just dishonest and dirty and provocative.”
Qatar had pushed the Security Council to adopt a European and Arab-drafted resolution backing an Arab League plan calling for Syria’s president to step aside to end bloody repression of anti-government protesters. But Russia and China vetoed the draft on Saturday, saying it promoted “regime change.”
The Internet report quoted Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem as telling Churkin that a veto would cause Russia to “lose all the Arab countries,” and Churkin as responding that if Sheikh Hamad spoke to him “in this tone once again … there will be no such thing as Qatar after today.”
The report, whose origin could not immediately be established, cited what it said was a video recording of a conversation at the United Nations last week but did not make clear on what occasion it took place. Sheikh Hamad addressed a Security Council meeting on Syria on Jan. 31.
