Asia

Home page

Asia

Russia lauds Syrian referendum results

28 February 2012 01:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Russia welcomed on Monday the results of the constitutional referendum held in Syria and considered it as an evidence of Syrian peopleâ€™s support to the authorities, according to the Foreign Ministry, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"We see in the referendum a confirmation of the popular support to the reform course. It is obvious that the influence of the opposition groups which called to boycott the referendum is limited and they donâ€™t have the monopoly right to speak on behave of the Syrian people," said a statement published on the Foreign Ministry website.

Moscow considers the national ballot an important step toward the reforms, which were provided by the Syrian government to render Syria into a modern democratic state and to widen its citizensâ€™ rights and freedom, the statement said.

Russia once again urged all sides in Syria to stop the violence immediately and launch a dialogue with no preconditions.

Nearly 90 percent of Syrian voters supported a new draft constitution promising changes to presidential terms and governing bodies, the Syrian state TV reported on Monday.