Was Sergei Lavrov’s statement on the United States arming the FSA mistranslated?
The BBC has a version of his statement taken from the original report by ISNA, which is here
“ما به سوريه سلاح هايى كه عليه غير نظاميان استفاده شود نمى فروشيم، بر خلاف آمريكايى ها كه به طور مكرر به منطقه خليج فارس اسلحه میفروشند، از جمله محموله اخيرى كه به منطقه فرستادند.”
Translation by me: “We are not selling weapons to Syria that are being used against civilians, as opposed to America which has repeatedly sold weapons to the Gulf region, including the latest shipments that have been sent to the region.”
This contrasts with the quote being carried on news agencies:
Lavrov told a news conference during a brief visit to Iran on Wednesday that Russia was supplying “anti-air defence systems” to Damascus in a deal that “in no way violates international laws”.
“That contrasts with what the United States is doing with the opposition, which is providing arms to the Syrian opposition which are being used against the Syrian government,” he said.
There is no mention of the “opposition” in the BBC article. I don’t know where they got it from but I’d love to know, as it is difficult to follow the chain of translations from one place to another; many Persian news sites may be translating from Western news sites instead of drawing from the original.