REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MOSCOW - Russia said on Wednesday it would veto a U.N. resolution on humanitarian aid access in Syria in its current form, denouncing the draft as an effort to lay a foundation for military strikes against President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Moscow had already dismissed the Western-Arab draft debated in the Security Council on Tuesday as a non-starter, but a senior diplomat's unequivocal condemnation indicated Russia would seek major changes before dropping its opposition.

"Its whole purpose and aim is to create grounds for future military action against the Syrian government if some demands it includes are not met," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said of the draft, according to state-run news agency RIA. "It is unacceptable to us in the form in which it is now being prepared, and we, of course, will not let it through."

Since the civil war began in Syria in 2011, Russia and China have vetoed three Western-backed Security Council resolutions condemning Assad's government and threatening it with sanctions. Russia says it is not trying to prop up Assad but that he must not be forced out by foreign powers, and adamantly opposes Western military intervention.

At the United Nations on Tuesday, French Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters that Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council Moscow was prepared to work on some kind of resolution on aid access, but not the present draft.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow would consider a draft resolution only if it was "not about one-sided accusations" against Syria's government. The draft condemns rights abuses by Syrian authorities and armed groups, and demands that the government stop all aerial bombardment of cities and towns as well as the indiscriminate use of bombs, rockets and related weaponry. 

The draft also condemns "increased terrorist attacks," and calls for the withdrawal of all foreign fighters from Syria. It expresses an intent to impose sanctions on individuals and entities obstructing aid and if certain demands in the resolution are not met within 15 days of its adoption.

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