UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has pleaded for a divided Security Council to “pull back from the brink of a deeper catastrophe” over Syria. But as war continues to tear apart the Middle Eastern country, diplomatic unity is nowhere to be found.
With the US, Europe and most Arab states on one side, and Russia and China on the other, during the ministerial meeting of the council, Western diplomats tried to appeal to more than political interest. Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, asked the two countries for “humanitarian solidarity… with the people in Syria … who do nothing else but ask for freedom and human rights,”
After 40 years of rule by the Assad family, parts of Syria rebelled a year ago. The ongoing violence has cost thousands of lives, and on Monday Ban Ki-moon laid the blame clearly at the door of President Bashar Assad, accusing him of the use of “disproportionate force” against his own citizens.
The secretary general urged the sides to agree a united resolution condemning the Assad regime. Russia and China, who have the power of veto in the Security Council, rejected a proposed resolution, branding it “unbalanced.”
From the start of the conflict Russia has shied away from accusing Assad of being the sole perpetrator of internal violence. On Monday, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said that Assad’s regime is up against “combat units of the so-called Free Syrian Army and extremist groups, including Al- Qaeda, which have committed a string of bloody terrorist acts recently.”
Russia and China also fear that any UN resolution passed ostensibly to protect the rights of ordinary Syrians could pave the way for foreign-orchestrated regime change in the country. Lavrov accused the West of using the pretext of establishing a “no-fly zone” in a previous UN resolution to carry out “mass air strikes” on Libya last year. Referring to the impact of Libya on any future resolution, Lavrov stated that “Whatever the goals are, they cannot be achieved by misleading the international community and manipulating UN Security Council decisions,”
Cairo Solution
Although the views of the Security Council’s various members might never coalesce, the solution may be a pragmatic compromise.
Sergey Lavrov met with the staunchly anti-Assad League of Arab States in Cairo over the weekend.
After a tense meeting, the sides emerged with a five-point short-term plan for Syria. Its main conditions were the violence must stop immediately, no foreign countries will intervene in the conflict, and a mission by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan must play a central role in resolving the stand-off.
The plan has been welcomed by China and on Monday Syria’s ambassador in Moscow also hailed the initiative.
With such backing Annan visited Syria over the weekend, but did not leave with concrete promises to stop the violence. Nevertheless, the special envoy said he was “optimistic of a resolution.”
‘NATO reluctant to get involved in Syria’
Alistair Dawber, foreign editor at the Independent newspaper, believes that a number of negotiations, including some that involve the Arab League, are possibly taking place at the UN Security Council on how to resolve the Syrian crisis.
“But I think NATO is very reluctant to get involved in Syria, not least because it will be a hugely difficult conflict, much more difficult than Libya,” he told RT “And, of course, the criticism that NATO has come under after the Libyan conflict has been pretty harsh”.
Dawber admitted that the downfall of the Assad regime could have a destabilizing effect, but also noted that “the risks of what follows Assad is certainly one thing, but it’s quite arguable to suggest that the risk that he stays as the incumbent is even greater”, as the analyst considers Assad to be the aggressor in the conflict.
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