Arab League Urges Security Council to Stop Syria 'Killing Machine'
Qatar's prime minister, speaking on behalf of the Arab League, urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to take action to stop Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's "killing machine."
Opening a top-level Security Council meeting on the Syrian crisis, Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said that the Arab League had tried to seek a solution with Assad in face of the 10-month uprising.
"Our efforts and initiatives, however, have been all useless because the Syrian government failed to make any sincere effort to cooperate with us and the only solution available to it was to kill its own people," he said.
"Bloodshed continued and the killing machine is still at work," he said.
He called for support of a U.N. draft resolution, sponsored by Arab League member Morocco, under which Assad would step down from power and agree to an end to violence ahead of negotiations on a settlement.
Russia, a close ally of Syria which holds veto power on the Security Council, has voiced opposition to the draft.
Western allies brought out their diplomatic big guns at the Security Council Tuesday to try to overcome the Russian opposition.
The showdown at the United Nations came as fighting escalated between Syrian government forces and rebels and a senior U.S. official predicted that Assad would be toppled.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was leading the charge for U.N. action in Syria, backed by allies British Foreign Secretary William Hague and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe.
The proposed U.N. resolution, crafted by the Western powers and the Arab League, seeks to stop a Syrian crackdown that the United Nations says has killed more than 5,400 people in the past 10 months. Under the resolution, Assad would be ordered immediately to halt violence and hand power to his deputy.
While there is no threat of use of force in the resolution, Russia says it amounts to regime change.
"I don't think Russian policy is about asking people to step down. Regime change is not our profession," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, arguing that while the Syrian president was not an ally of Moscow, it was not up to other nations to interfere.
The text of the resolution, seen by Agence France Presse, calls for the formation of a unity government leading to "transparent and free elections," while stressing there will be no foreign military intervention in Syria, as there was in Libya during the toppling of Moammar Gadhafi.
Assad's government has already flatly rejected a similarly worded resolution proposed by the Arab League.
Russia's deputy foreign minister, Gennady Gatilov, said on Tuesday that the resolution would be a "path towards civil war" in the increasingly divided country.
But in Washington, U.S. intelligence chief James Clapper said the fall of the Assad was inevitable already.
"I do not see how he can sustain his rule of Syria," Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told senators.
"I personally believe it's a question of time but that's the issue, it could be a long time."
The opposition Syrian National Council deplored the international community's lack of "swift action" to protect civilians "by all necessary means," in a statement on Facebook.
The SNC, the most representative group opposed to Assad, reaffirmed the "people's determination to fight for their freedom and dignity," stressing they "will not give up their revolution, whatever the sacrifices."
The head of the now-defunct Arab League observer mission to Syria, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, said there had been a marked upsurge in violence since last Tuesday.
On Monday alone, almost 100 people, including 55 civilians, were killed during a regime assault on the city of Homs, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On Tuesday, at least 32 people were killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The rebel Free Syrian Army said half of the country was now effectively a no-go zone for the security forces.
"Fifty percent of Syrian territory is no longer under the control of the regime," its Turkey-based commander Colonel Riad al-Asaad told AFP.
He said the morale of government troops was extremely low. "That's why they are bombing indiscriminately, killing men, women and children," he said.
However, Syria's foreign ministry expressed outrage over "the aggressive American and Western statements against Syria (that) are escalating in a scandalous manner," and blamed violence on "armed terrorist groups."
A report from the state news agency SANA said Assad had visited wounded servicemen and praised their "unique will, bravery."
CIA director David Petraeus told senators in Washington that Assad now faced challenges in Damascus and Aleppo, two cities that had been seen as insulated from the unrest.
"I think it has shown indeed how substantial the opposition to the regime is and how it is in fact growing and how increasing areas are becoming beyond the reach of the regime security forces," Petraeus said.
Amid the escalating violence, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called for unity at the Security Council.
The Council must be "united this time, speak and act in a coherent manner, reflecting the wishes of the international community and reflecting the urgent wishes and aspirations of the Syrian people, who have been yearning for freedom," Ban said.
Qatar's prime minister, speaking on behalf of the Arab League, urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to take action to stop Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's "killing machine."
Opening a top-level Security Council meeting on the Syrian crisis, Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said that the Arab League had tried to seek a solution with Assad in face of the 10-month uprising.
"Our efforts and initiatives, however, have been all useless because the Syrian government failed to make any sincere effort to cooperate with us and the only solution available to it was to kill its own people," he said.
"Bloodshed continued and the killing machine is still at work," he said.
He called for support of a U.N. draft resolution, sponsored by Arab League member Morocco, under which Assad would step down from power and agree to an end to violence ahead of negotiations on a settlement.
Russia, a close ally of Syria which holds veto power on the Security Council, has voiced opposition to the draft.
Source: Agence France Presse
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