Annan urges UN Security Council to break Syria deadlock
UNITED NATIONS, March 16 — The UN-Arab League envoy on the Syrian crisis, Kofi Annan, urged the Security Council to overcome its deadlock and unify in support of his efforts to end the violence that has brought Syria to the brink of civil war, UN diplomats said today.
Kofi Annan gives a statement after his address to the Security Council in New York by videolink. — Reuters picAddressing a closed-door meeting of the 15-nation council via video link, Annan said the stronger their message was in support of his efforts to negotiate a ceasefire, the greater his chances would be of securing an end to the fighting, council diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
“The stronger and more unified your message, the better chance we have of shifting the dynamics of the conflict,” an envoy said, summarising Annan’s remarks.
He added that Annan suggested to council members that Damascus’ response to his six-point peace proposal had been disappointing so far. But Annan’s team was continuing to talk with the Syrian government, the diplomat said.
Annan is pushing for a ceasefire and political dialogue between government and opposition.
Annan also said in his message that unified pressure from the Security Council on Syria had succeeded in the past, such as when it pressed Damascus to withdraw forces from neighbouring Lebanon, envoys said. That withdrawal was completed in 2005.
Russia and China have twice vetoed Security Council resolutions condemning the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for his year-long attempts to crush pro-democracy demonstrations. The United Nations says Assad’s assault on protesters has killed over 8,000 civilians.
Negotiations on a third draft resolution — this time penned by the United States and calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian access for aid agencies — have stalled over disagreements about who in Syria should be the first to stop fighting and who is to blame for the conflict.
Assad says that the opposition must stop fighting first, while the United States, Gulf Arabs and Europeans say Assad and his much-stronger army must make the first move. Russia says both sides should stop firing their weapons simultaneously.
Russia also wants both sides to share equal blame for the conflict, a position Western and Arab nations also reject.
Western diplomats said they would decide whether and how quickly to press ahead with a third resolution after Annan’s briefing to the council.
Russia and China have said repeatedly that they believe Western and Gulf Arab countries want Libya-style regime change in Syria, a country that has close ties to Moscow and hosts Russia’s only warm-water naval port outside the former Soviet Union. Moscow and Beijing say they oppose regime change there. — Reuters
