Moscow and Beijing are ready to propose a U.N. resolution on Syria that is more "balanced" than the West's draft that they controversially vetoed last week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.
Lavrov said in an interview with Profil magazine that the Moscow-drafted version would condemn violence carried out both by the regime of Bashar Assad and the rebel opposition.
Full StoryLebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said on Monday that most officials discussing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon are missing out on its purpose which is related to justice, stressing that the silence over the Syrian infiltration in the eastern Bekaa valley can be considered a “national treason.”
“They are tackling it (the STL) from a technical point of view, but it is a moral compensation to the millions who lost their beloved ones… To stop the political crimes and to establish the civil peace,” Geagea told al-Joumhouria newspaper.
Full StorySyria will shortly present the United Nations with a list of more than 1,100 people it says have been killed by "terrorists" in ongoing unrest in the country, its deputy foreign minister said Friday.
"Syria is grappling with terrorist threats," Faysal Mekdad said in a speech to the 47-state U.N. Human Rights Council at it reviewed the situation in Syria.
Full StoryAn announcement by Hizbullah that it rejects the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will likely put Premier Najib Miqati at loggerheads with the international community after he made several pledges that Lebanon would fund the STL.
The international tribunal is set to try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins.
Full StoryGermany has summoned the Syrian ambassador to Berlin over a tirade by Damascus's envoy to the United Nations, the foreign ministry said in a statement here Thursday.
"The Syrian ambassador in Germany was summoned yesterday to the foreign ministry," the statement said.
Full StoryLebanon’s decision to abstain from voting on the U.N. Security Council resolution against the Syrian regime triggered wide reactions locally, especially among the March 8 forces and the March 14-led opposition that strongly criticized it, An Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday.
Sources told the daily that the Foreign Ministry had directed Lebanon's Special Envoy to the U.N. Nawaf Salam to vote against the resolution, but urgent discussions among officials favored that Lebanon abstain from voting.
Full StoryU.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday slammed Russia and China for vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria, saying the people of Syria "will not forget."
Clinton said the Council had "abrogated its responsibility" by failing to push through the European draft resolution that would have threatened possible action against Syrian President Bashar Assad over a crackdown on protests.
Full StoryVetoes by Russia and China of a U.N. Security Council resolution against Syria marked a "historic day," President Bashar Assad's aide Bouthaina Shaaban told AFP on Wednesday.
"This is a historical day that Russia and China as nations are standing for the people and against injustices," Shaaban said after the veto of the resolution, which had called for "targeted measures" against Syria if Assad's regime pursued its deadly crackdown on protests.
Full StoryTurkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government would announce a package of sanctions against neighboring Syria despite a U.N. resolution blocked by Russia and China.
"Unfortunately, the draft prepared in the form of a warning (against Syria) was vetoed during the vote at the U.N. Security Council yesterday," Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.
Full StoryThe decision by Russia and China to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution targeting Syria marked a "sad day for the Syrian people" and for the council itself, France said Wednesday.
"The Security Council should not remain silent in the face of the Syrian tragedy," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in a statement, after the veto blocked the European call for "targeted measures" against Damascus.
Full Story