Russia accuses U.S. of "deliberate distortion" of its Syria stance

Moscow on Wednesday accused Washington of deliberately distorting its position on conflict- torn Syria, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama branded Russia as a holdout against a UN draft resolution on Syria aid.

"This is unlikely that our U.S. partners do not possess real information on the dynamic of developments in Syria on disarmament and humanitarian tracks. In this connection the question arises, why do they deliberately distort Russian position on Syria?" Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in an online comment.

Obama has said Russia is a holdout against the UN draft resolution threatening sanctions against those who blocked delivery of humanitarian aid or harmed civilians, adding that there was "great unanimity among most of the Security Council" in favor of the measure.

Obama said Secretary of State John Kerry had told Russians that "they cannot say that they are concerned about the well-being of the Syrian people when they are starving civilians."

"It is not just the Syrians that are responsible, the Russians (are) as well if they are blocking this kind of resolution," Obama said at a joint White House press conference with French President Francois Hollande.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the UN draft resolution was "detached from reality" and a "one-sided" effort to blame the Syrian government for holding up aid.

Lukashevich, in his remarks, called on the West not to overdramatize slow pace of removal of the chemical weapons from Syria. Those disruptions caused by technical and security reasons should not be exploited as a pretext for threats of a military operation, he said.

Although Moscow shares U.S. concerns over worsening humanitarian situation in Syria, Russia sees success in terms of aid relief for the civilians caught in the fighting, he added.

Lukashevich called on other countries, including the United States, to use their influence to seek for solution to the humanitarian issues in besieged Syrian cities. "The Syrians must be helped by the practical actions not by the resolutions with condemnations and threats."