Arab League pushes UN to act on Syria

Arab League pushes UN to act on Syria

Security Council debates draft resolution calling for Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to deputy.

The Arab League has urged the UN Security Council to adopt a clear resolution to support the league's efforts in ending the 11-month-old conflict in Syria, but said it opposes foreign military intervention to achieve the objective.

The league's Secretary General Nabil Elaraby and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani appeared on Tuesday before the 15-nation council in New York to present its plan of action as well as to brief the panel on the situation in Syria.

The meeting culminated months of efforts to bring the Syrian conflict before the council, a move that has been resisted by Russia and China.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Germany's Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Link are attended the meeting.

An actual vote on the resolution was considered unlikely until later this week.

Sheikh Hamad opened the discussion, saying that the international community needed to get involved.



"Realising the hopes of the Syrian people is in your hands," Sheikh Hamad said, asking them to adopt the resolution, based on the Arab League's peace plan for the country. "It is part of your responsibility under the (UN) charter."

He said the resolution outlined "a political and democratic solution to the crisis aimed at achieving a peaceful transition and turnover of power."

Nabil Elaraby told the council that the league wanted the Security Council act "to support our initiative and not to take its place."

"We are attempting to avoid any foreign intervention, particularly military intervention" in Syria, he said. "We have always stressed full respect of the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian people."

Syria's UN representative rejected the proposed resolution, saying Damascus will confront its "enemies".

"It will stand firm in confronting its enemies," Bashar Jaafari, the Syrian ambassador to the world body, told the council.

Jaafari accused the alliance of Western powers and Arab League states of "double standards" and of "fomenting the crisis."

"One can't be an arsonist and a firefighter at the same time," he said.

Hillary Clinton said that inaction on Syria would "shake the credibility of the United Nations," and accused opponents of a draft resolution of complicity in the violence.

"We all have a choice: Stand with the people of Syria and the region or become complicit in the continuing violence there," Clinton said, without mentioning Russia by name.

"The alternative -- spurning the Arab League, abandoning the Syrian people, emboldening the dictator -- would compound this tragedy and would mark a failure of our shared responsibility and shake the credibility of the United Nations Security Council," she said.

William Hague told the council the resolution "does not call for military action and could not be used to authorise it."

Alain Juppe described the idea of such intervention as a myth. He urged the council to end its "scandalous silence" over bloodshed in Syria by supporting the resolution.

'Council has no mandate'

The UN should not meddle in Syria's internal conflict, Russia's UN ambassador said, rejecting the resolution.

Vitaly Churkin said there was "possibly a last chance to break the spiral of violence which has swept away Syria and its people." But he said that the council "cannot impose the parameters for an internal settlement. It simply has not the mandate to do so."

Churkin said agreement among council members is possible and the inclusion of some of Russia's ideas in a European-Arab draft resolution is a positive sign,

"We hope that the council will come to consensus on the Syrian issue, as is not only possible but also necessary."

Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the council, has objected to the draft. Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Twitter that the resolution is a "path to civil war."

A French official said the draft UN resolution has a "comfortable majority" of support from 10 of the Security Council's 15 members, meaning Russia or China would have to use their veto power to stop it.

Both Russia and China called on the council to play a "constructive" role.

Churkin and his Chinese counterpart, Li Baodong, said they are opposed to punitive measures like military action or sanctions against Damascus. Instead they called for dialogue between Damascus and the opposition to work out a peaceful solution.

Li called on Syria to carry out "reforms and safeguard the interests of its people, stop the killing of innocent people and hold dialogue without delay." Li warned that any conflict in Syria could have an effect on the Middle East region.

The draft resolution, seen by the AFP news agency, also calls for the government to put an immediate stop to violence that the UN says has killed thousands of people in the past 10 months.

The draft stresses there will be no foreign military intervention in the conflict and demands that "the Syrian government immediately puts an end to all human rights violations and attacks against those exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association".

It calls on Assad to delegate his "full authority to his deputy" and then to form a national unity government leading to "transparent and free elections under Arab and international supervision".

If Assad fails to comply within 15 days, the council would consider "further measures," a reference to a possible move to impose economic or other sanctions.

The text insists it does not compel states "to resort to the use of force, or the threat of force", which a diplomat said was a statement aimed at answering the concerns of Russia and China.

In October, Moscow vetoed the first council attempt to condemn Syria's crackdown and has shown little sign of budging in its opposition.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent for the UK's Independent newspaper, said the reason why the Russians were not going along with the resolution was because "they feel conned by the no-fly zone [in Libya]".

"They did not vote against the no-fly-zone over Libya at the Security Council. They didn’t think it meant the overthrow of Gaddafi," he said.

"Since they have their 24-hour port in Tartous, the only 24-hour port they have left in the area, they do not want to lose Syria."



Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from neighbouring Lebanon, said that the violence in Syria continued on Tuesday.

"More than 30 people have been killed by the security forces so far, according to activists in Syria. The government is pushing ahead, trying to firm-up its control all over the country, especially in the rebellious areas, like Homs, Deraa and the suburbs of Damascus."

The death toll from Monday's offensive was about 100 people, making it one of the bloodiest days since the uprising began in March, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition group.

Early on Tuesday, government forces moved into the two towns near Damascus still in the hands of the opposition.

"Intense shooting was heard in Zamalka and Arbeen as the tanks advanced," the observatory said, citing its network of sources on the ground.

Security forces made sweeping arrests in the nearby town of Rankus, activists said.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/01/2012131212539291323.html
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