Syria: Russia blames West over resolution veto

February 5th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

World leaders united to condemn the attack. “Yesterday the Syrian
government murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and
children, in Homs,” President Barack Obama said in a written statement.

“Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own
people now. He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed
immediately.”

William Hague, the foreign secretary, said: “The Syrian regime’s actions
display President Assad’s cold-blooded cynicism in the face of mounting
international pressure for the UN security council to do its utmost to end
the bloodshed.

“The escalating violence underlines the critical importance of the security
council adding its weight to the Arab League’s efforts to end the crisis in
Syria.”

The assault began without warning at 10pm on Friday evening, activists in the
city and in London said, and lasted five hours. Rami Abdulrahman, of the
London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said his contacts had
counted 237 dead, including 99 women and children.

Activists speaking by phone from inside the figure said the number was even
higher, but even the lower figure would make the assault the bloodiest
single atrocity of the uprising.

The government claimed film footage showing the victims was a set-up using the
bodies of people kidnapped and killed by “armed gangs”, and said it was a
deliberate attempt to build up hostility towards the regime in advance of
the UN resolution.

Within hours of the bombardment starting, pictures flooded YouTube and
television stations of bodies piling up in chaotic aid stations, disfigured
by explosions. Lines of lifeless young men splattered with blood packed the
rooms of a mosque in one particularly gruelling clip, though it could not be
confirmed they were victims of the attack.

Another clip showed a teenage boy, his face covered by his jacket.

“We were sitting inside our house when we started hearing the shelling.
We felt shells were falling on our heads,” a resident called Walid told
Reuters. “The morning has come and we have discovered more bodies,
bodies are on the streets. Some are still under the rubble.”

Mr Abdulrahman said the attack was unaccountable, because there had been less
conflict than usual in the city during the day, usually a day of intense
protest after Friday prayers.

But he said the regime’s attention had turned to Homs after a troop of
soldiers had been ambushed with several deaths by Free Syrian Army fighters
in Deraa, in Syria’s far south.

“Two hours later they started the first bombing in Homs,” he said.

Of those who died, most were from Khalidiya, a suburb that has been under
effective rebel control. “Abu Jihad”, who lives in Khalidiya,
spoke as mass funerals began in the street behind him, divided into batches
of 25 and 50, he said, to minimise the chance of troops attacking the
funeral processions.

A crowd 100,000 strong had gathered in the central square of Khalidiya,
renamed Hurreya or Freedom Square, and were chanting against the regime, he
said.

“They fired mortars at us, just to punish us,” he said. “The
attack targeted civilian areas and civilian people, because Khalidiya is a
symbol of the revolution in Homs.”

Homs has suffered by far the most casualties of any province of the uprising.
The Free Syrian Army has been patrolling some streets openly, and fighting
cat-and-mouse battles with the regular army.

Mohammed Saleh, who lives outside the city but has relatives inside, said that
following the bombardment there were skirmishes a mile away on the road to
Hama, with soldiers firing wildly in all directions and causing more
civilian casualties. The fighting centred on a base of the Mukhabarat, or
General Intelligence Department.

At the United Nations, Britain, the United States and France determined to go
ahead with the security council vote, believing that after constant
negotiations and amendments the Russians were merely playing for time.

They rejected amendments tabled by Russia that it said would enable it to
support the current draft. The amendments sought to put equal blame on the “armed
elements” of the opposition for the violence in Syria.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who had been highly critical of
Western attempts to force through a resolution but had stopped short of
saying he would veto it, discussed the issue with US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton in Munich. He was said to have submitted the additional
amendment dropping the demand for tanks and artillery to be withdrawn, part
of the first Arab League peace plan agreed with Syria in November, only on
Friday night.

“Our amendments do not demand any extreme efforts,” he said. “If
our colleagues display a constructive approach, we will get a collective
Security Council resolution that I am certain all countries without
exception will sign on to.”

He said Russia could not support any resolution that “took sides” in
a civil war.

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said the amendments were “unacceptable”.

The draft has already been watered down from the original, which repeated
almost verbatim an Arab League timetable for Mr Assad to cede powers to his
deputy, oversee the formation of a unity government with the opposition, and
hold elections within six months.

The subsequent version said Syria should move “in accordance with”
the Arab League plan, but Russia wanted this further altered to merely “take
into account” the plan.

Anger over events in Syria spilled over into European and Arab capitals, with
several Syrian embassies being stormed including in London and Berlin. The
embassy in Kuwait had its windows smashed, while a mob entered the ground
floor of the embassy in Cairo and set fire to it.