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On Thursday, the BBC reported that UN Security Council diplomats toned down a resolution on Syria in a move apparently aimed at overcoming Russia’s opposition to an earlier draft. The new text, submitted by Morocco, no longer explicitly calls on President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power, which was a key point of an Arab League plan to settle the Syrian conflict. According to the UN, the Syrian government‘s 11-month crackdown on protests killed at least 5,400 people. Syrian authorities blamed the violence on armed gangs affiliated with al-Qaeda, and said that more than 2,000 soldiers and police were killed. Russia, along with China, already vetoed a European-drafted resolution containing the threat of sanctions against Syria in October 2011.
Amnesty International advised Russia against blocking international efforts to end ongoing violence in Syria and to join a binding UN Security Council resolution. Russia, one of Assad’s firm supporters during the uprising against his régime, indicated earlier this week that it would veto any draft resolution calling on Assad to step down and providing for “further measures” should he refuse. Moscow proposed its own draft, which the West criticised as being too soft. Some Western countries tried to persuade Moscow to support a resolution effectively authorising a military operation, but Russia repeatedly insisted that the Western drive for a stronger crackdown on Syria is a preparation for a “Libyan scenario”. In Libya, rebels ousted and killed long-standing dictator Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011 after a months-long military standoff in which they received assistance from NATO forces. On Wednesday, Vitaly Churkin, the Russian Ambassador to the UN, said Russia would vote against the Morocco-submitted draft on Syria if it turned out unacceptable for Moscow.
2 February 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/world/20120202/171102149.html
