West accepts terrorism when it’s politically expedient

international | anti-war | other press Wednesday September 12, 2012 12:58 by pat c

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov exposes the hypocrisy of Western nations in refusing to condemn terrorist bombings in Syria. Full text at link.

The Security Council has always resolved that terrorism is unacceptable, Lavrov said. But for the first time, Western member-states deviated from this position after a bombing in Damascus killed several senior security officials, he said. According to Western nations, the bombing did not qualify as terrorism since the victims were the heads of power structures fighting against insurgents, Lavrov said, claiming he was dumbfounded by such an explanation.

Lavrov urged other members of the Security Council to condemn not only the Sunday bombing in the conflict-wracked Syrian city of Aleppo, which killed 27 people and wounded dozens, “but also a series of terrorist attacks that happened the same day in Iraq.”

The silence of Western countries on the attack could indicate that their countries have changed their stance on terrorism, he said. “I’d be really glad if our partners refuted my suspicion,” Interfax cited Lavrov as saying.

Another senior Russian diplomat, deputy FM Gennady Gatilov, also accused Western nations of double standards over their refusal to condemn the Syrian terrorist attacks. “So there are ‘bad’ terrorists who should be condemned and those whose actions can go without a reaction from the international community,” he wrote on Twitter.