Russia's foreign minister said Monday his country would study an Arab League proposal for a joint peacekeeping mission in Syria with the United Nations, while China refused to give a clear position on the proposal. Russia's Sergey Lavrov said Monday that a ceasefire would have to be declared before any such mission could be deployed. “We should first have peace, which would be supported,” Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Meanwhile, China refused to say if it backs the Arab League call for a joint peacekeeping force - the latest bid to end the violence that has killed more than 5,400 people there. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin refused to directly answer repeated questions on whether it would support the league's call. He said China backs the Arab League's “political mediation efforts.” He reiterated China's stance that it wanted to see Syrian authorities and opposition forces “properly solve their disputes through dialogue.” China along with Russia upset the United States, Europe and much of the Arab world a little more than a week ago when they vetoed a UN resolution that would have pressured Syria's President Bashar Assad to step down. Syria has already rejected the call adopted Sunday at a meeting in Cairo by foreign ministers from the 22-nation Arab League. Meanwhile, the European Union backed Monday an Arab League call for a UN peacekeeping mission in Syria and urged the UN Security Council to act in order to stop the violence there. “We welcome these bold decisions and the strong and clear commitment and leadership that the Arab League is taking to resolve the crisis in Syria,” said Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Asthon. Germany also welcomed the Arab League's “important” role in helping end the violence in Syria, a day ahead of a visit by its chief to Berlin. “The active and leading role of the Arab League is important to settle the Syrian crisis,” foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke told reporters. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle believes the clear condemnation of violence and steps against the Syrian regime eyed by the Arab League send “a strong sign” to the Syrian people, he said. “That goes both for the political as well as the economic measures which the Arab League is contemplating,” Peschke told a regular news briefing.
