British FM says all options open on #Syria

By Musa Hatter (AFP)

AMMAN — British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Tuesday the crisis in Syria is too unpredictable to rule out “any option,” insisting that a Chapter VII resolution of the US Security Council is needed.

“The situation (in Syria) is so grave and so unpredictable that I do not think any option should be ruled out in the future,” Hague said in Amman at a joint news conference with his Jordanian counterpart, Nasser Judeh.

“Clearly, we have failed so far. The process that (peace envoy) Kofi Annan has launched has failed so far to bring about a peaceful political process and so now we need the Security Council to greatly strengthen the pressure for that to happen.”

Britain, France, United States, Germany and Portugal want a resolution adopted at the Security Council that includes the threat of sanctions if the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad does not halt the use of heavy weapons in compliance with a six-point UN-backed peace plan.

Hague urged Russia and China to “take greater note of the scale of the bloodshed and the need to bring it to an end and the desperate situation of the sort of people that we met at the Syrian border today.”

Earlier Tuesday, Hague and Judeh met with Syrian refugees in the border town of Ramtha, where the British minister slammed the “barbarity and criminality of the Assad regime.”

“What we have seen today should leave us in no doubt at all that a Chapter VII resolution is required,” Hague told the press conference.

Chapter VII of the UN charter allows for punitive measures against regimes considered a threat to world peace, including economic sanctions and military intervention.

Hague added that this is “to mandate the implementation of Annan’s peace plan and a transitional government in Syria with a peaceful political process and to bring about the imposition of globally agreed sanctions on those who obstruct the implementation of that plan.”

During a tour of Ramtha’s Bashabsheh housing complex, a military-guarded compound that houses around 1,000 Syrian refugees, one of them told the British top diplomat that “we just want you to get rid of Bashar.”

Hague replied: “Is that what you all would recommend?”

One man answered: “Yes sir please.” Another refugee snapped: “If you do not want to take a military act against the regime, give us weapons and the Syrians will fight.”

Hague described the deadly violence in Syria as “horrible.”

“It is horrible to hear the accounts of what is happening (in Syria) from people here, many of them coming from close by over the borders,” said Hague, the most senior British official to visit the refugees in Jordan.

The news reports that are coming out of Syria, “assure the barbarity and criminality of the Assad regime.”

“The horrors of the crimes committed by Assad are clearly on display when you talk to people just over the borders from Syria,” he told reporters.

And he said his country was training human rights activists to document abuses in Syria.

“We have trained 47 activists. We will train 20 more to document human rights abuses that are being committed and we are also giving help to people through (UN refuges agency) UNHCR to help pay for accommodation, water, food, sanitation,” he said. He did not elaborate.

Jordan is hosting more than 140,000 Syrians, many of whom are living with relatives in Ramtha, and is building several refugee camps for them. More than 27,344 of the refugees are registered with the United Nations.

“For the past few days, we have been receiving 700 Syrians a day,” Kamel Deriche, UNHCR assistant representative in Jordan, told AFP.

The diplomats also visited UN offices near the Bashabsheh complex — which consists of six apartment buildings, tents and huge storage containers — to examine procedures to register the refugees.

Source: google.com

#Syria United Nations vote delayed

Syria United Nations vote delayed

Kofi Annan, the international envoy to Syria, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin Photo: AP

By Alex Spillius

Western allies are determined to push ahead with a resolution, seen by The Daily Telegraph, that would trigger sanctions under Chapter VII of the UN charter if the Syrian army does not withdraw its troops to barracks and stop using heavy weaponry within ten days.

The vote was due to be held on Wednesday at the UN’s New York headquarters but has been put back to tomorrow evening or even Friday, when the two-month mandate of the UN observer mission in Syria expires.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, after visiting Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, said the UN Security Council “should adopt chapter VII resolution this week. No country should have a veto over human rights of the Syrian people”.

Without a vote, the team of 30 observers would promptly leave. Though its movements have been hampered, it has for two months provided the only independent reporting of the violence, which according to opposition estimates has so far claimed more than 17,000 lives.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia has the power of veto and has so far refused to compromise.

It argues that the British-drafted resolution could lead to armed intervention, even though it comes under article 41 of chapter 7, which specifically excludes the use of force. The sanctions would probably cover the economy and travel by regime members.

“We are not going to stand back from what is clearly required at the UN just because the Russians are refusing to engage without just cause,” said a Western diplomat.

“The arguments on the Russian side reason don’t stand up to scrutiny The Syrian people need a clear signal that we are not prepared to stand aside.”

Kofi Annan, the international envoy to Syria, visited Moscow yesterday in a bid to shift its position as Syria’s protector at the UN.

Afterwards Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said he saw “no reason why we cannot also agree at the UN Security Council”.

But Russia’s preference is for a simple extension of the UN observer mission’s existing mandate, though it would take on a more political dimension.

The resolution condemns the “Syrian authorities’ increasing use of heavy weapons, including indiscriminate shelling from tanks and helicopters, in population centres”.

It also condemns “the continued widespread violations of human rights by the Syrian authorities, as well as any human rights abuses by armed opposition groups”.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

Syrian opposition calls “battle of liberation” if UN fails #Syria

Syrian opposition head Burhan Ghalioun called on Sunday for a “battle of liberation” against the regime until the United Nations takes action under Chapter Seven which allows military intervention.

“I call on the Syrian people to lead a battle of liberation and dignity, relying on its own forces, on the rebels deployed across the country and the Free Syrian Army brigades and friends,” he told a news conference in Istanbul.

Ghalioun, outgoing leader of the Syrian National Council (SNC), said such action would be taken “unless the international community assumes its responsibilities under Chapter Seven” of the UN charter.

A Chapter Seven resolution, which can be imposed by the UN Security Council, authorizes foreign powers to take measures including military options.

Ghalioun, in a meeting earlier with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, said the anti-regime uprising in Syria had reached a “turning point” after the killings on Friday and Saturday of more than 90 people in a central town.

“The SNC calls on the international community and in particular [UN-Arab League envoy] Kofi Annan to act immediately to halt the killings,” an unnamed Turkish source quoted him as telling Davutoglu.

After an international outcry over what activists branded a massacre, the Syrian government on Sunday denied its forces were responsible for the killing of at least 92 people, a third of them children, in the town of Houla.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Source: nowlebanon.com

France steps up pressure on #Syria as it threatens demand of intervention

France has threatened to demand international intervention against President Bashar al-Assad if a peace plan failed to stop the violence in Syria.
Mr Juppe said it was the “moment of truth” and if the Syrian regime were not complying with the plan’s terms France would seek a resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN charter Photo: EPA

By , Beirut and Richard Spencer in Cairo

9:02PM BST 25 Apr 2012

Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, said he was giving the peace plan put forward by Kofi Annan, the United Nations envoy, which includes sending hundreds of monitors to Syria, until May 5 to show it was working.

That is the day Mr Annan is due to make his next report on the mission to the UN security council. Mr Juppe said it was the “moment of truth” and if the Syrian regime were not complying with the plan’s terms France would seek a resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN charter.

Chapter 7 permits the use of force, and was used in the Libya campaign, though it can also mandate non-military action.

“This cannot continue indefinitely. We want to see observers in sufficient numbers, at least 300, deployed as quickly as possible,” he said. “If that does not work, we cannot allow the regime to defy us.”

Mr Annan has already reported to the council that Syria had failed to withdraw weapons from population centres in violation of the terms of the April 12 ceasefire.

“The situation in Syria continues to be unacceptable,” he said late on Tuesday. “The Syrian authorities must implement their commitments in full and a cessation of violation in all its forms must be respected by all parties.”

Government troops shelled and raided the Damascus suburb of Douma on Wednesday, on the same day that UN monitors visited the town. Activists have accused the Syrian government of using visits by the handful of monitors already in the country to target opposition figures.

“Troops raided houses in Kourshood street, arresting people randomly,” Douma resident Yahya Hawash said. “Some broke into shops. They started shelling at 8 o’clock this morning.

“When the monitors came security forces were with them, and no one could speak frankly.”

Others claimed that 11 activists in Hama were captured and executed the day after they spoke to UN observers visiting the city.

“Syrian intelligence came back to Arbaeen district after the observers left,” said Mousab Alhamadee. “They arrested the activists from their hideout, took them to the High School of Industry and shot them.

“The regime has decided to punish people who talked to monitors. Residents are fleeing areas that the monitors visit as they are afraid of government attacks.”

The full deployment of the 300 UN observers has been delayed since the plan was agreed, with only fifteen monitors currently inside Syria.

Bassma Kodmani, spokesman for the Syrian National Council, said it still supported the Annan plan as a “positive development” that could yet acquire momentum. But she called for the observers to be supplied with helicopters – something unlikely to be agreed by Mr Assad.

Mr Juppe said it was “unacceptable” that Syria had rejected a monitor from an unnamed country of which it did not approve, and has said it would not allow in any from countries that had joined the “Friends of Syria” group led by the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

He said the peace plan was not dead, but was “severely compromised”.

A Chapter 7 resolution invoking the use of force would almost certainly be vetoed by Russia and China. However, they agreed to the resolution that sent the monitoring mission, and a report by Mr Annan, whom both countries have strongly backed, saying that Mr Assad had failed to live up to the resolution’s terms would put both under pressure to agree some form of tougher action.

In further fighting yesterday, activists abroad and inside the country reported the deaths of four civilians on a bus in the northern province of Idlib. The bus was attacked from a checkpoint on the main road from Aleppo to the capital.

Source: telegraph.co.uk