Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad says the Arab League will continue working to end political violence in Syria after Russia and China blocked a UN resolution condemning Damascus. Photo: AFP
BEIRUT: Diplomatic efforts to mediate Syria’s uprising have been followed by renewed bombardment yesterday as the government pursued a crackdown in the capital’s suburbs and the north and rebel leaders vowed that only force would drive President Bashar al-Assad from power.
The Obama administration, dismayed by escalating violence and the blocking of tougher action against its government by Russia and China over the weekend, vowed on Sunday to ”redouble efforts” to push Mr Assad out of power.
However, doing so without the force of a United Nations Security Council resolution could mean having to look the other way as other countries arm the Syrian opposition, providing a recipe for all-out civil war, some Syria experts said.
On Sunday, the Obama administration sought to get beyond the earlier veto by Russia and China of a Security Council resolution backing an Arab League plan for a political settlement in Syria. The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, called the veto a ”travesty”.
Mrs Clinton placed the blame for the deteriorating situation on Russia and China. ”Those countries that refuse to support the Arab League plan bear full responsibility for protecting the brutal regime in Damascus,” Mrs Clinton said from Sofia, Bulgaria. ”And it is tragic that after all the work that the Security Council did, they had a 13-2 vote.”
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, lashed out at critics of Russia’s veto decision.
“There are some in the West who have given evaluations of the vote on Syria in the United Nations Security Council that sound, I would say, indecent and perhaps on the verge of hysterical,” Mr Lavrov said ahead of a visit to Damascus today, Interfax news agency reported.
But even as US officials promised to increase their efforts to stop the Syrian government getting additional weapons and cracking down on protesters, some Syria experts suggested the US may have to go further. At the very least, it may have to give tacit approval to the arming of the Syrian opposition.
Such a move could lead to civil war. But it could also set the stage for a potential proxy war in a volatile region, as the US and its allies in Europe and the Gulf back the Syrian opposition against Mr Assad, whose government is supported by Iran and Russia.
Mr Assad’s forces bombarded the city of Homs, killing up to 17 people in a renewed onslaught yesterday. A day earlier, in long rebellious areas, including Homs, activists said 31 people were killed, adding to a death toll that the UN set at 5400 before it stopped compiling figures.
Arab satellite TV stations showed live footage of Homs with smoke rising from buildings and the sound of explosions. The Associated Press quoted activists as saying the targets included a makeshift medical clinic and residential areas.
The government denied shelling the city, however, and the official SANA news agency said “armed terrorist groups” were attacking civilians and police and had blown up a gas pipeline.
The New York Times
Article source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/clinton-points-finger-as-syria-faces-civil-war-20120206-1r1x8.html