Assyrian Democratic Organization ADO
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NEW YORK – French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe accused the Syrian regime Monday of "crimes against humanity" and slammed the UN Security Council for failing to take a strong stand on the unrest.
"Crimes against humanity are committed in Syria. The silence of the Security Council is unacceptable," Juppe told the Council on Foreign Relations, at a talk held on the sidelines of a week of UN summits.
Syria has been rocked by protests against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began on March 15 and triggered a brutal crackdown in which the United Nations says 2,600 people have been killed.
China and Russia, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, have opposed plans to slap more sanctions on Damascus.
Juppe said he had recently traveled to both Russia and China for talks. "The dialogue with Russia was more frank. We have a fundamental difference in how we see things," he told a later press conference at the French UN mission.
"We believe that the (Syrian) regime has little by little lost its legitimacy by practicing such a repression and unparalleled brutality," Juppe said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday urged Russia to support a "strong statement" at the UN Security Council over Syria’s crackdown on protests, senior US officials said Friday.
In her talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Clinton expressed "our interest in seeing the Security Council go on record with a strong statement on Syria," a senior administration official said on condition of anonymity.
"The Russians as well are concerned about the situation in Syria, and the violence," the official told reporters after the two top diplomats held talks ahead of the UN General Assembly opening Wednesday in New York.
"The secretary urged Foreign Minister Lavrov to support a strong expression from the Security Council because she doesn’t believe the United Nations Security Council should be silent in the face of such inexcusable violence," he said.
The official did not elaborate on what form the statement should take.
Russia last month proposed a UN Security Council resolution on Syria that would omit Western calls to sanction President Bashar al-Assad for his deadly crackdown on opposition protests, diplomats said.
Another senior US administration official said that "the secretary made a strong case for why a Security Council action is necessary this time, given the actions that the Syrian government is taking against its own people.
"Foreign Minister Lavrov presented his perspective, which was that the best way forward is through dialogue between Assad and members of the opposition," the official said.
The permanent members of the Security Council are deeply divided on how to deal with the unrest in Syria, and the regime’s crackdown on the pro-democracy protests.
The United States, Britain and France have called for Assad to step down, and have pressed for UN sanctions against the regime. But they have met stiff opposition from Russia and China.
A delegation of Russian lawmakers is in Syria in a bid to broker an end to the violence.
Assad told them on Sunday he welcomes the "balanced and constructive Russian position toward the security and stability of Syria," the state-run SANA news agency reported.
But Assad, who has blamed "armed terrorist gangs" for the violence rocking his country, also warned against "any foreign intervention that threatens to divide states in the region."
Source: Middle East Online
