UN Security Council

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UN Security Council

Russia on Tuesday warned the European, Arab countries and the United States not to cross the “red line” toward Syria, stressing out that it was not the United Nations’ job to determine who comes and who goes out of office in the restive country.
The Russian position was expressed on the occasion of the debate on a new resolution Morocco has drafted and the European countries and the United States have endorsed at the UN Security Council.
The resolution was demanding Bashar al-Assad to hand power to a deputy, and have a unity government established, so that free elections may be called. It also required that the violence be stopped, the prisoners freed, and negotiations be engaged between power and opposition in two months, in order to bring the country to a normal way of life.
The American State Secretary, the European and the Arab countries have urged the Security Council to adhere to this draft and adopt the resolution that would ask Assad to end violence, step down and engage in discussions with the opposition.
Vitaly Churkin, the Russian Ambassador to the U.N., said that the Arab countries were now in the driver’s sea, and that pressing the acceleration too hard could lead to a ditch. He said that the end of violence in Syria is not only a possibility, but also a necessity, but the language of the resolution, he added, was not acceptable, because it offered the possibility of imposing sanctions on Syria, and Russia fears that the Libyan scenario could come to pass again.
It vetoed a resolution in October, when it opposed along with China a resolution that was drafted by the European countries, and was condemning the crackdown in Syria. In December Russia refused to have the Syrian president being held accountable for what happened.
More than that, Russia proposed a resolution in which the blame for the loss of life in Syria be ascribed to both government and the rebels. Above all, Russia refuses to accept any sanctions on the restive country, where it has the last military base outside the former Soviet Union territory. Syria is one of the most serious clients of the Russian commerce with weapons.
UK foreign secretary William Hague said that consultations with Russia would be held for the next 24 hours in hopes that the resolution would pass and the regime in Damascus would receive a very serious signal that their ways are wrong and must stop.
Arab League chief Nabil el-Araby made his case along with the Qatari foreign minister before the UN Security Council attempting to reassure Russia that no sanctions were involved in the AL’s plan.
El-Araby said that the idea of placing the power into the hands of the deputy was inspired by Assad himself, who pledged last July to hand power over to Farouk al-Sharaa.
US State Secretary Hillary Clinton said that it was time the differences were put behind and that the countries agreed on Syria, so that the regime be stopped. The alternative, Clinton charged, is to abandon the Syrian people, to give Assad the message that the coast is clear for him, and to shake the credibility of the international institutions.
The Syrian ambassador to the UN conveyed the message of his regime, saying that any resolution on his country would be a flagrant infringement of the national sovereignty. The situation in Syria becomes more and more complicated as the rebels of the Free Syrian Army have been trying to get hold of the capital and to chase the president, and were pushed back of the outskirts of the capital by the loyalist troops.

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