NATO calls for enforced solution in Syria after Russian UN veto
A portrait of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad hangs on a wall as Syrian soldiers walk pastin the al-Midan area, Damascus, 20 Ju | AFP PHOTO/LOUAI BESHARA
On 20 July, NATO appeared to distance itself from Russia’s veto of a UN Security Council resolution that would threaten sanctions against Syria's President Bashar Assad, with a NATO official telling New Europe that "NATO is not directly involved in the process ongoing in the United Nations".
But the NATO official also said that the international community needs to enforce a political solution to the Syrian crisis and end the escalation of conflict. "As the Secretary General has made clear, there is an urgent need for all members of the international community to come together and enforce a political solution to the crisis in Syria, based on the Annan Plan and the conclusions of the meeting of the Action Group on Syria,” the NATO official said.
On 19 July, Russia and China vetoed the UN Security Council resolution that would threaten sanctions against Assad if he does not end the use of heavy weapons. This was the third Russia-China veto in nine months. There were 11 votes in favour, with Russia and China voting against and with Pakistan and South Africa abstaining. As two of the five permanent members of the council, Russia or China can veto any resolution.
Amid growing doubts over the future of the peace mission of UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, the United States said it would now act outside of the UN body to confront Assad. Russia said the West wanted "military intervention".
"We will intensify our work with a diverse range of partners outside the Security Council to bring pressure to bear on the Assad regime and to deliver assistance to those in need," US ambassador Susan Rice said. "The Security Council has failed utterly in its most important task on the agenda this year," she added, while warning of reports that Assad's government could use chemical weapons in the battle against the
Russia accused Western nations of seeking to use the proposed resolution to justify military intervention in Syria.
Russia’s Kremlin does not want to see in Syria the kind of Western-led regime change that took place last year in Libya and last week dispatched Russian Navy ships in the eastern Mediterranean to Russia’s Navy base at Tartus, Syria.
The UN resolution sought to "open the path to the pressure of sanctions and further to external military involvement in Syrian domestic affairs," Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said after his veto. He added that the West had sought to "fan the flames of extremists, including terrorist groups."
China's ambassador Li Baodong said Western nations had been "arrogant and rigid" in negotiations on the resolution.
Russia had proposed its own alternative resolution to extend the UN mission for three months without the sanctions threat but did not bring that measure to a vote because Churkin said he wanted to avoid further confrontation. Western diplomats said the Russian resolution had little support in the council.
The conflict in Syria began in March last year with protests against Assad. The bombing that killed some of President Assad's inner circle has escalated the conflict. On 19 July, rebel fighters in Syria seized all four border crossings with Iraq and one into Turkey, while government forces claimed on 20 July to have retaken a pocket of Damascus in just one battle, news agencies reported.
On 19 July, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, said a group of rebel fighters claimed to have routed government soldiers in a section of Midan neighbourhood, taking over a piece of one of the city’s oldest neighbourhoods.
About 125,000 Syrians have left the country since the conflict began, and as many as 500,000 people still in Syria have been displaced from their homes, the US State Department said on 19 July.
No comments:
Post a Comment