MOSCOW, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Russia saw no reason for the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution on Syria based on a chapter of the U.N. Charter that allowed the use of force, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.
"Some countries, which want to make external military interventions in Syria, are trying to foist a resolution with reference to Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, which stipulates enforcement measures against breaching countries," Lavrov told a local magazine, Foreign Affairs, here.
"But we are dealing with an internal conflict and there is no reason to intervene in favor of one side. It is necessary to make all confronting sides in Syria stop fighting immediately and sit at the negotiating table," Lavrov said.
He said the U.N. Security Council had already passed two resolutions on Syria, as well as a communique adopted by an action group in Geneva on June 30, which envisaged a Syrian-led transition.
"We proposed to approve the Geneva communique at the U.N. Security Council, but the U.S. has refused because it didn't contain threats, one-sided assessments and sanctions against the (Syrian) regime. It contained a balanced approach aimed at stopping violence in Syria," the diplomat said.
Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter allows the U.N. Security Council to use force in the face of a threat to peace or aggression, taking "such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security," including blockades and other operations by the forces of member states.
In July, Russia and China vetoed a Western-proposed draft resolution, which threatens non-military sanctions by quoting Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter if the Syrian government failed to pull out troops and heavy weapons from populated areas.
The two countries said after the vote the resolution was "biased" and "seriously problematic," and went against the Geneva consensus.
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