Exclusive-Russia lambasts Syria's new leaders in closed UN meeting, sources say

By Samia Nakhoul and Maya Gebeily

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Russia castigated Syria's new leaders in a closed United Nations briefing this week, two sources briefed on the meeting told Reuters, warning against the rise of jihadists in Syria and comparing sectarian killings of Alawites to Rwanda's genocide.

Moscow's private criticism of Syria's Islamist rulers comes despite Russian efforts to retain two key military bases in coastal Syria - the same region where hundreds of people from the Alawite minority were killed last week.

The violence was triggered on March 6 by an attack on new government security forces blamed on ex-army figures loyal to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, who is Alawite. That attack unleashed widespread killings of Alawites across several provinces by groups accused of links to the new government.

The Kremlin, which backed Assad before he was toppled and fled to Russia in December, called on Tuesday for Syria to remain united and said it was in contact with other countries on the issue. But its comments in the closed Security Council briefing on Monday, which it called for jointly with the United States, were much more scathing, shedding light on Moscow's strategy as it tries to reassert influence over Syria's course. They have not been previously reported.

Two sources briefed on the meeting said Moscow's envoy Vassily Nebenzia compared the sectarian and ethnic killing to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when Tutsis and moderate Hutus were systematically massacred by Hutu extremists, led by the Rwandan army and a militia known as the Interahamwe.

The sources cited Nebenzia as telling those gathered "no one" had stopped the killing in Syria.

When asked whether he likened the violence in Syria to Rwanda's genocide, Nebenzia told Reuters: "I say what I want in the closed consultations, based on the premise that it is closed consultations and nothing comes out."

Asked why Russia would be more critical in private than public statements, Anna Borshchevskaya, a Russia expert at the Washington Institute, said Moscow was hedging its bets.

"They want to restore their influence in Syria and they're looking for a way in. If they start to criticize the government publicly, that doesn't get them anywhere," Borshchevskaya said.

"Russia also wants to be seen as a great power, equal to the U.S. and resolving crises together with the U.S. So working privately with the U.S. in this case gives them added benefits," she said.

'IRAQ SCENARIO'

The sources said Nebenzia criticised the new Islamist rulers' dissolution of Syria's army and massive cutting of the public workforce, warning that "the Iraq scenario" could play out again - a reference to the years of sectarian violence that followed the toppling of Saddam Hussein and dismantling of Iraq's state institutions.

After ousting Assad in an offensive spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al Qaeda affiliate, Syria's new Islamist rulers installed some foreign fighters within a new military infrastructure.

Critics saw its public sector layoffs as aimed at excluding of Alawite workers and a national dialogue last month as insufficiently inclusive.

Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa told Reuters in an interview this week that his administration did not want to distribute positions according to sect and that a broadened government set to be announced this week could include Alawites.

He said he did not want to see "a rift between Syria and Russia," and that Damascus wanted to preserve its "deep strategic relations" with Moscow.

At the closed briefing, Russia said the new rulers' moves created a "corrupt foundation" for the transition away from decades of Assad rule and worried that foreign "terrorist" fighters were playing a "destructive role," the sources said.

Witness accounts from the mass killings in Syria's coast referred to non-Arabic speakers, indicating foreign fighters may have taken part in the violence.

The envoys of the United States, France and China also all stressed their worries over the presence of foreign fighters in Syria and the state of the country's political transition in the closed briefing.

The 15-member Security Council is currently negotiating a statement that would condemn the violence, express concern over the impact on escalating tensions among Syria's communities and call on the interim authorities to protect all Syrians regardless of ethnicity or religion.

Such statements are agreed by consensus. Nebenzia told Reuters he hoped the Security Council would agree a statement on the situation soon.

The international community has conditioned much of its re-engagement with Syria on the way the transition proceeds, including how inclusive it is of Syria's diverse religious and ethnic communities.

(Reporting by Samia Nakhoul, Maya Gebeily and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Aidan Lewis)