UN Security Council discusses Syrian crisis

The U.N. Security Council on Friday was discussing an Arab League-backed plan to respond to the crisis in Syria, diplomats said as they headed into the closed-door consultations.

French Ambassador Gerard Araud said council members expected a presentation by the Moroccan ambassador, whose country joined the council this month.

Araud said a new Arab-European draft resolution reflecting the Arab League's demands on Syria would be introduced, and he hoped that it would be voted on next week. "We have waited too long," he said.

The U.N. says at least 5,400 have been killed in a months-long Syrian government crackdown on civilian protests.

European diplomats have been meeting this week with diplomats from Arab countries, including Morocco and Qatar, on a resolution that would strongly back an Arab League bid to end the crisis.

"There is now a chance that the Security Council will finally take a clear stand on Syria. That is long overdue," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Friday at the General Affairs Council in Brussels. The comments were provided by the German mission to journalists at the U.N.

On Tuesday, the Arab League secretary-general and Qatar's prime minister will brief the Security Council on the situation in Syria.

"We hope now that council members will seize this new window of opportunity and find common ground," German Ambassador Peter Wittig said.

But approval was far from guaranteed.

Permanent council members Russia and China used their veto powers last fall to block an earlier European resolution on Syria. On Friday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying Moscow will oppose a new draft U.N. resolution on Syria because it fails to take Kremlin's concerns into account.

South African Ambassador Baso Sangqu said it was important that supporters of the resolution assure other countries, including his, that the draft was not a plan for regime change.

Russia and some other countries believe NATO misused last year's Security Council's resolutions on Libya as a pretext for regime change in that nation.

Anti-Syrian regime protesters
wave Syrian revolution flags

Russia has been a strong ally of Syria since Soviet times, when the country was led by the president's father Hafez Assad, and has long supplied Syria with aircraft, missiles, tanks and other modern weapons.

The new Arab-European draft resolution on Syria, obtained by The Associated Press, expresses support of the Arab League's Jan. 22 decision "to facilitate a political transition leading to a democratic, plural political system."

The draft does not mention sanctions, but calls for the adoption of unspecified "further measures, in consultation with the League of Arab States," if Syria does not comply within 15 days.

The draft also condemns the "continued widespread and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities" and demands that the Syrian government immediately stop all human rights violations.

The Arab League earlier this month sent observers to Syria, but the mission was widely criticized for failing to stop the violence. Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia pulled out of the mission Tuesday, asking the Security Council to intervene because the Syrian government has not halted its crackdown.

The head of Arab League observers in Syria said in a statement that violence in the country has spiked over the past few days. Sudanese Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi said the cities of Homs, Hama and Idlib have all witnessed a "very high escalation" in violence since Tuesday.

Associated Press writer Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2012 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

'No plans' for Western military action on Syria, Iran

Western nations have no immediate plans for military action to stop the repression of protests in Syria or to halt Iran's nuclear programme, Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Sunday.

Asked if there was a possibility of a no-fly zone in Syria like the one imposed over Libya last year, Hague said there was "no serious prospect" of a UN resolution on the subject.

"We haven't been looking at a no-fly zone," Hague told Sky News, saying it would be only effective in tandem with other measures, and that the Syrian regime had not been relying on air power to repress protests.

"There is no serious prospect certainly at the moment of the United Nations Security Council agreeing any resulution at the moment, let alone agreeing a resolution comparable to anything that happened in Libya."

But he said that if the current Arab League monitoring mission in Syria does not work "I hope they (the Arab League) will come to the UN and suggest a way forward that we can all get behind."

Hague was also cool on suggestions by Qatar that Arab forces should be sent into Syria to stop the deadly 10-month crackdown on dissent by President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

On Iran, Hague warned that Tehran's "dangerous" nuclear drive threatened profileration across the Middle East.

"We must not be put off further sanctions by bluster or statements from Iran," Hague said, adding that he hoped European Union foreign ministers would agree new measures when they meet on January 23.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad waves at supporters during a rare public appearance in Damascus on January 11

"If it continues it will produce nuclear profileration across the Middle East, which will then be extremely dangerous for the people of Iran, for the whole region and for the peace of the world."

Hague refused to rule out military action against Iran but said Britain was not calling for it.

"We've never ruled anything out, we've not ruled out any option, or we've not ruled out supporting any option, we believe all options should be on the table, that is part of the pressure on Iran, he said.

"But we're clearly not calling for or advocating military action, we're advocating negotiation, meaningful netogiations, if Iran will enter in to them."

The West accuses Iran of trying to produce a nuclear weapon, but Iran says its programme is for civilian use.

AFP 2012

LEAGUE DEMANDS END TO BLOODSHED

The Arab League has demanded that the Syrian government immediately stop all violence and allow more monitors in, as activists reported at least 10 more civilians, including two teenagers, were killed by regime forces.

Fierce clashes in the south between government troops and military defectors left 11 soldiers dead, activists said. The Arab League also called on other armed parties to halt all bloodshed, an apparent reference to the defectors.

Syrian mourners pray in front of the coffins of 11 Syrian police officers who were killed in an explosion in the Midan neighborhood of Damascus (AP)

Qatari foreign minister Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani said the ministers did not agree to call for UN experts to join the observers' mission in Syria, but said UN experts will train the monitors in Cairo before they leave. Even had they called for the UN experts to go in, Syria's regime may well have blocked them.

The success of the mission, said Mr Al Thani, who heads the committee, "depends on the government of Syria, and that means stopping the killings, withdrawing troops from the cities, and allowing journalists to work and enter Syria".

The ministerial committee called on "the Syrian government and various armed groups to immediately halt all forms of violence and to return to protesting peacefully for the success of the Arab League observers' mission in Syria".

At the meeting, the head of the observers issued his first report on the mission, sharing photos, maps and initial findings.

The five foreign ministers from the 22-member Arab League, who met in Cairo, said the 165 Arab League monitors now on the ground need greater independence from President Bashar Assad's regime.

The monitors are supposed to be ensuring Syrian compliance with a plan to end the government's crackdown on dissent. The Arab League plan calls on Syria to remove heavy weaponry, such as tanks, from all cities, free all political prisoners and allow in human rights organisations and foreign journalists. Syria agreed to the plan on December 19.

Opposition activists say around 450 people have been killed by Mr Assad's regime since observers began work in Syria nearly two weeks ago.

A Syrian activist in Cairo, Thaer Al-Nashef, said the regime is misleading the observers and that the mission has done nothing to resolve the crisis. He said the issue should be dealt with at the UN Security Council.

"The monitors have not moved the situation forward or backward in Syria. At the same time the regime is killing the Syrian revolution," he said. "The Arab League should stop this staged performance, because the Syrian regime is not adhering to the agreement."

Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said observers will continue their month-long mission in Syria, despite claims by activists that the mission is giving cover to Mr Assad's crackdown on protesters and delaying further action.

He also defended the choice for head of the mission, Sudanese General Mohammed Ahmed Al-Dabi, saying his military experience was useful on the ground. Gen Al-Dabi has drawn criticism because he served in key security positions under Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Although the Arab League said it needs more monitors in Syria, ministers today did not name an exact number. Initially, the League had requested to send 500 monitors, but so far Syria has allowed in only 165.

The Qatari foreign minister told reporters after the meeting that the League is aware that the mission has not fulfilled its goal of stopping the bloodshed.

"Is what happened, ideal? We want to do more," he said. "We know that the Syrian people have made a decision, but what we want is to lessen the losses, human losses."

According to the UN, more than 5,000 people have been killed since March when mostly peaceful anti-government protests began and drew a harsh military response from the government. Hundreds more have been killed since the UN issued that estimate last month.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 soldiers died in intense fighting in the town of Basr al-Harir in southern Daraa province. More than 20 troops were wounded.

In Homs, seven civilians were killed by troops raiding houses and pro-government snipers on rooftops. A 15-year-old boy was among seven civilians killed, the Observatory said.

The Local Co-ordination Committees activist network and other activists confirmed the killing of civilians. In the Damascus suburb of Zabadani, two people were killed during raids that followed clashes with defectors, and in the eastern Deir el-Zour province, a 19-year-old was also killed during raids in pursuit of activists, the activists said.

While many of the anti-government protests sweeping the country since March remain peaceful, the Syrian uprising as a whole has become more violent in recent months as frustrated demonstrators take up arms to protect themselves from the steady military assault. An increasing number of army defectors also have launched attacks, killing soldiers and security forces.

The regime's crackdown has led to broad worldwide condemnation and sanctions, weakened the economy and left Mr Assad an international pariah just as he was trying to open up his country and modernise the economy.

The government says that the turmoil in Syria is not an uprising but the work of terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs.