12/05/2012

By Hussein Shabokshi

Successive news reports have been leaked about the meeting that was held in the Damascus presidential palace and chaired by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in the presence of his brother-in-law and Syrian Deputy Defense Minister, Assef Shawkat, and a carefully selected group of the most prominent businessmen in Syria. This was an extremely tense and stormy meeting which represented a humiliation of the Syrian businessmen who were subject to explicit violent threats that required no interpretation, namely that either these businessmen and merchants clearly and explicitly support the regime and comprehensively refuse to support or finance the revolution or face the consequences!

Dire threats of the complete destruction of Damascus were issued. The threats included the historical and commercial district of al-Hamaidiya and the well-known Gates of Damascus, which would all be destroyed and levelled to the ground in the same manner as the Baba Amr district of Homs, and in the same manner that the famous district of Kelaniya was destroyed and witnessed horrible and bloody massacres in the 1980s.

The al-Assad regime had established strong, sensitive, precise, strategic and long-lasting relations with Syria’s businessmen and industrial sector whereby the regime was keen to offer them “benefits” in order to secure their support for the future.

The regime knew that the Syrian character has been one that is “based” and indeed completely “absorbed” in trade from time immemorial. In fact, trade is a primary part of the character, identity and history of the Syrian people, and so a Syrian person anywhere - whether at home or overseas - is known for his excessively pragmatic handling of issues in certain situations and whenever necessary. Hence, al-Assad, both the father and the son, have exploited this idea and skilfully drawn upon it. They would often bring businessmen into their inner circle, urging them to benefit from Syria’s closed market economy in order to make substantial profits. This all was happening in a climate where genuine competition was absent, whilst employment and other business issues could be fixed or resolved by government intervention. Yet, this state of affairs cost these businessmen dearly, whether in the form of funding and supporting numerous prominent influential figures and their lifestyle, or in the form of funding government officials’ private projects for unknown security and intelligence purposes.

It is well known that illustrious and prominent Syrian merchants and businessmen are working - behind their amiable facades - to the advantage of well-known officials, in what can be seen as marriage of convenience, however a marriage that lacks customs, laws and system because for these businessmen, the end justifies the means. This is why al-Assad is today witnessing an increasing number of businessmen defecting from the regime; a phenomenon that did not receive the same media coverage given to the defections from the al-Assad regime’s army.

Businessmen, merchants and manufacturers now are backing the revolution and are offering financial and spiritual aid, whilst others have fled the country and are attempting to pressure the regime, either via media appearances or by publicly siding with the governments championing the Syrian revolution. Others have preferred to work secretly from outside the country, continuing to serve as a useful aid to the revolution in a number of different ways.

Capital, by its very nature, searches for a partner in government that can guarantee its safety. Yet, we must not overlook the fact that any situation must have a category of beneficiaries, and so the danger, insults, humiliation and the exorbitant cost which the Syrian business sector have had to pay – especially when considering this category as one that is accustomed to “calculating” issues beforehand – have all caused businessmen to discover that they are now facing a losing proposition. Hence, for them, the entire issue needs to be reconsidered. This was a good reason for the regime’s current “hysteria”, for it is now receiving blows from all sides, both domestically and abroad. Aleppo and Damascus - the most important economic bases in Syria – have also risen against the regime after the agricultural sector and villagers in Homs, Hamah, Deraa and Deir al-Zour previously did so.

The economic defections will serve as a new source of pressure against the regime and will thwart its ability to manage the economy. This represents a genuine dilemma for the Syrian regime whose options are disappearing and whose support base is shrinking.

In the early months of the revolution, the regime attempted to seriously “reassure” its economic base by granting them unprecedented privileges, turning a blind eye to all the fines and sanctions in order to shore up support. However it was the Syrian working class who had been harmed by the regime, and who were responsible for inciting this revolution. Many of them were killed, injured or detained, and this ultimately made it impossible for Syria’s businessmen to continue aiding the regime and they have therefore chosen to side with the revolution. This is another nail in the coffin of a regime that should have been put to rest long ago!

07/03/12 VOA news

The U.N. humanitarian chief is traveling to the battered Syrian city of Homs on the first day of her mission to push for relief workers to be given unhindered access to those in need of aid.

A U.N. spokesman said Valerie Amos arrived in Damascus Wednesday, where she held talks with Syrian foreign ministry officials.  She is scheduled to be in the country until Friday, and her visit will be followed a day later by former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, the new special envoy to Syria.

International pressure 

The visits come as international pressure mounts on Syria’s government to end a crackdown on a year-long opposition uprising.

The United States said Tuesday it is proposing a new U.N. Security Council resolution to end the violence, while Turkey’s leader called for immediate aid access.

“Humanitarian aid corridors to Syria must be opened right away and we must heap pressure on the Syrian administration to deliver humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, especially to Homs,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. “The Arab League decision on Syria must be implemented without wasting any more time.’”

Erdogan also said the violence had “started to resemble an inhumane savagery in recent days” and that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be “brought to account” for the crackdown.

Spain closed its embassy in Syria to protest the “brutal repression of the Syrian regime.”  France, Britain and the United States have already halted their diplomatic operations in Damascus. 

Draft resolution 

The new U.S. draft “demands” Syria cease all violence and protect its population while condemning the “continued, widespread and systematic” human rights violations committed by the authorities. It also calls on the armed opposition to “refrain from all violence” once those conditions are met.

Russia and China, powerful allies that blocked a similar U.N. resolution against Syria last month, made clear they are still standing by President Assad’s government.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said unilateral U.S. military action against Assad’s government would be a mistake.

More Syrian violence 

On the ground in Syria Tuesday, government troops shelled a village in southern Daraa province and clashed with army defectors.  In Homs, activists said security forces carried out raids in an area next to the former opposition stronghold of Baba Amr and reported gunfire and explosions nearby.

The Red Cross said it is still awaiting approval to distribute aid to the devastated district which endured a nearly month-long siege. Residents who fled Baba Amr spoke of bodies decomposing under rubble, sewage mixing with litter in the streets and a campaign of arrests and executions.

Secretly shot video footage aired on Monday by a British television station showed what it said were Syrian patients tortured by medical staff at a state-run hospital in Homs. The video, which Channel 4 said it could not independently verify, showed wounded, blindfolded men chained to beds, some of them with clear torture marks on their bodies.

Also Tuesday, activists said the military blasted a bridge and a tunnel near the Lebanese border used as escape routes for the wounded and refugees fleeing Homs province.

 

Refugees 

The U.N. refugee agency said at least 9,000 Syrians have fled into Lebanon since Assad began his bloody crackdown on anti-government protests last year. UNHCR spokeswoman Dana Suleiman told VOA at least 2,000 Syrians crossed the border in recent days to escape violence from the Homs region.

Syria’s state-run news agency quoted President Assad Tuesday saying Syrians have proved their determination to pursue reform and fight “foreign-backed terrorism,” which the government blames for the year-long unrest. 

The United Nations estimates that violence linked to the uprising has killed at least 7,500 people since it began last March. Syria blames the unrest on “armed terrorist groups” backed by foreign conspirators.

March 6, 2012

Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) today released the following statement on the situation in Syria:

“After a year of bloodshed, the crisis in Syria has reached a decisive moment.

“The United Nations has declared that Syrian security forces are guilty of crimes against humanity and that more than 7,500 lives have been lost. The kinds of mass atrocities that NATO intervened in Libya to prevent in Benghazi are now a reality in Homs and other cities across the country. Syria today is the scene of some of the worst state-sponsored violence since Milosevic’s war crimes in the Balkans. And the bloodshed continues, with no end in sight.

“What is all the more astonishing is that Assad’s killing spree has continued despite severe and escalating international pressure against him. This has been an impressive international effort, and the Obama Administration deserves credit for helping to orchestrate it.

“Unfortunately, this policy is increasingly disconnected from the dire situation on the ground in Syria, which has become a full-blown state of armed conflict. Despite a year’s worth of diplomacy backed by sanctions, Assad and his lieutenants show no signs of giving up. To the contrary, they appear to accelerating their fight to the finish. Unfortunately, with each passing day, the international response to Assad’s atrocities is being overtaken by events on the ground in Syria.

“Some countries are beginning to confront this reality, as well as its implications. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are calling for arming opposition forces in Syria. The newly-elected Kuwaiti parliament has called on their government to do the same. Most importantly, Syrians themselves are increasingly calling for international intervention, including military assistance. The opposition Syrian National Council recently announced that it is establishing a military bureau to channel weapons and other assistance to the Free Syrian Army and armed groups inside the country.

“To be sure, there are legitimate questions about the efficacy of intervention in Syria, and equally legitimate concerns about its risks and uncertainties. It is understandable that the Administration is reluctant to move beyond diplomacy and sanctions. But our current policy is not succeeding, and the current course is no longer strategically or morally sustainable.

“For this reason, the time has come for a new policy. As we continue to isolate Assad diplomatically and economically, we should work with our closest friends and allies to support opposition groups inside Syria, both political and military, to help them organize themselves into a more cohesive and effective force that can put an end to the bloodshed and force Assad and his loyalists to leave power, which has been the goal of United States policy since August 2011.

“What opposition groups in Syria need most urgently is relief from Assad’s tank and artillery sieges in many cities that are still contested. Providing military assistance to the Free Syrian Army and other opposition groups is necessary, but as Assad continues to intensify his assault, that alone will not be sufficient to stop the slaughter and save innocent lives. The only realistic way to do so is with foreign airpower.

“Therefore, if requested by the Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army, the United States should help organize an international effort to protect civilian population centers in Syria through airstrikes on Assad’s forces. To be clear: This will first require the United States and our partners to suppress the Syrian regime’s air defenses in at least part of the country.

“This should not mean the United States must act alone. Any intervention should include Arab partners such as Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Jordan, and Qatar, and willing allies in the E.U. and NATO, the most important of which in this case is Turkey.

“The ultimate goal of airstrikes should be to protect civilian population centers from Assad’s killing machine and establish safe havens in which opposition forces can organize, rest, refit, and plan their political and military activities against Assad. These safe havens could serve as platforms for the delivery of humanitarian and military assistance – including weapons and ammunition, body armor and other personal protective equipment, tactical intelligence, secure communications equipment, food and water, and medical supplies. These safe havens could also help the Free Syrian Army and other armed groups in Syria to train and organize themselves into more cohesive and effective military forces, likely with the assistance of foreign partners, and provide political space for the Syrian National Council to organize on Syrian soil.

“The benefit for the United States in helping to lead this effort directly is that it would allow us to better empower those Syrian groups that share our interests – those groups that reject Al-Qaeda and the Iranian regime, and commit to the goal of an inclusive democratic transition, as called for by the Syrian National Council. If we stand on the sidelines, others will try to pick winners, and this will not always be to our liking or in our interest.

“There will be no UN Security Council mandate for such an operation. Russia and China took that option off the table long ago. But let’s not forget: NATO took military action to save Kosovo in 1999 without formal U.N. authorization. There is no reason why the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), or NATO, or a leading coalition within the Friends of Syria contact group, or all of them speaking in unison, could not provide international legitimacy for military measures to save Syria today.

“Are there dangers, and risks, and uncertainties in this approach? Absolutely. There are no ideal options in Syria. All of them contain significant risk. Many people will be quick to raise concerns about the course of action we are proposing. Many of these concerns have merit, but none so much that they should keep us from acting.

“For example, it is often said that we should not assist the opposition in Syria militarily because we don’t know who these people are, or that by doing so, we could end up benefiting Al-Qaeda or Hamas. In fact, the surest way for Al-Qaeda to gain a foothold in Syria is for us to turn our backs on those brave Syrians who are fighting for their lives.

“Another objection to intervention is that the conflict has become a sectarian civil war, and our involvement would enable the Sunni majority to take revenge against the Alawite minority. This is a serious and legitimate concern, but it is only growing worse the longer the conflict goes on. Furthermore, the risks of sectarian conflict will exist in Syria whether we get more involved or not. If we work to assist the armed opposition now, we will at least have some ability to try to mitigate these risks. Engagement with these groups is the best way to understand them better, to seek to establish trust and influence with them, because we took their side when they needed it most.

“We should not overstate the potential influence we could gain with the armed opposition in Syria, but it will only diminish the longer we wait to offer meaningful support, and what we can say for certain is that we will have no influence whatsoever with these people if they feel we abandoned them.

“We also hear it said that we should not contribute to the militarization of the conflict. If only Russia and Iran shared that sentiment. Instead, they are shamelessly aiding Assad’s killing machine. We need to deal with reality as it is, not as we wish it to be – and the reality in Syria today is a one-sided fight where the aggressors are hardly lacking for military means thanks to the intervention of foreign powers.

“There are always plenty of reasons not to do something, and we can list them clearly in the case of Syria. We know there are divisions in the opposition and among the armed resistance inside the country. We know that some elements of the opposition may sympathize with violent extremist ideologies or harbor dark thoughts of sectarian revenge. We know that many of Syria’s immediate neighbors remain cautious about taking overly provocative actions to undermine Assad. And we know the American people are weary of conflict – justifiably so – and would rather focus on domestic problems.

“These are realities, but while we are compelled to acknowledge them, we are not condemned to accept them forever. With resolve, principled leadership, and wise policy, we can shape better realities. That is what the Syrian people have done.

“By no rational calculation should this uprising against Assad still be going on. The Syrian people are outmatched. They are outgunned. They are lacking for food, and water, and other basic needs. They are confronting a regime whose disregard for human dignity and capacity for sheer savagery is limitless. For an entire year, the Syrian people have faced death, and those unspeakable things worse than death, and still they have not given up. Still they take to the streets to protest peacefully for justice. Still they carry on their fight. And they do so on behalf of many of the same universal values we share, and many of the same interests as well.

“The people who are fighting for freedom in Syria are natural allies. They have expanded the boundaries of what everyone thought was possible in Syria. They have earned our respect, and now they need our support to finish what they started. The Syrian people deserve a chance at freedom, and shame on us if we fail to help them now in their moment of greatest need.”

13/02/12

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that all parties must end the violence in Syria, including from the armed opposition, adding that a ceasefire is necessary before any Syria peacekeeping mission comes into action.

Lavrov spoke at a joint conference in Moscow with his United Arab Emirates counterpart Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

The Russian said his country was examining an Arab League proposal for the deployment of a joint Arab-U.N. peacekeeping mission in Syria presented on Sunday in Cairo.

By Barbara Starr

Although the U.S. focus remains on exerting diplomatic and economic pressure on Syria, the Pentagon and the U.S. Central Command have begun a preliminary internal review of U.S. military capabilities, CNN has learned.

The options are being prepared in the event President Barack Obama were to call for them. Two senior administration officials who spoke about the review to CNN emphasized that U.S. policy for now remains the use of non-military options.

The focus on diplomatic options was underscored by the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in an interview with CNN on Tuesday.

“Before we start talking about military options, we very much want to ensure that we have exhausted all the political, economic and diplomatic means at our disposal,” Ambassador Susan Rice said on CNN’s “Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

The president has also said that the U.S. is working on non-military options first.

“I think it is very important for us to try to resolve this without recourse to outside military intervention, and I think that’s possible,” Obama said in an interview with NBC News that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday.

But the military is beginning to look at what can be done.  One of the senior U.S. officials called the effort a “scoping exercise” to see what capabilities are available given other U.S. military commitments in the region.

Both officials pointed out that this type of planning exercise is typical for the Pentagon, which would not want to be in the position of not having options for the president, if and when they are asked for.

It would be Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, who would provide details on what U.S. military assets are available, what missions they could perform if asked, and what risks U.S. forces might face.

“The Pentagon is closely monitoring developments in Syria.  It wouldn’t be doing its job if it didn’t put some ideas on the table,” one of the senior U.S. officials told CNN. “But absolutely no decisions have been made on military support for Syria.”

The two officials were not willing to be identified because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Typically those types of options are held by the Pentagon as very preliminary plans and not even forwarded to the White House unless asked for. If asked, plans are then fleshed out with specific units to support them.

In this type of analysis being done, the military would typically look at all options ranging from humanitarian relief, to support for opposition groups, as well as outright military strikes, although that is an unlikely option, both officials said.

“This remains a campaign to apply economic and diplomatic pressure,” the first official said.

The military’s work to analyze potential military options for Syria has been quietly going on for several weeks, two administration officials confirm to CNN. The bulk of the analysis is being done by staff of General Mattis, who would be the senior commander if the President were to order any action.

Mattis’ analysis is being shared with General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who would then present options to the White House, if it came to that.

“We don’t want to be in the position of suddenly dusting off some five year old plan,” one official said.  The official emphasized the work is extremely preliminary but said the military would look at a full range of contingencies.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services committee, told reporters Tuesday that the U.S. should consider “all options including arming the opposition.”

But U.S. officials said that adding weapons into the volatile and violent situation is not a viable option.

“We never take anything off the table. The president does (or) doesn’t. However, as the president himself made absolutely clear and as the secretary has continued to say, we don’t think more arms into Syria is the answer,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

By RICK GLADSTONE

Published: January 31, 2012

Related

France is throwing its diplomatic weight behind the Arab League’s Syria peace plan, despite a UN Security Council resolution to back the process being vetoed by Russia and China.

As Arab states and Turkey joined western governments in expressing outrage at the veto, French officials said on Sunday that intensive contacts would get under way shortly on a proposal to create an international group on Syria. The group would be aimed at sustaining pressure on the regime in Damascus and maintaining momentum behind the Arab League’s proposals for an end to the crisis.

A week of intense negotiations at the UN in New York ended in diplomatic rancour on Saturday when the Security Council voted 13-2 in favour of the Arab and western-backed resolution calling for Mr Assad to transfer power. Russia, which has been the closest ally of the Syrian regime throughout the process, and China both vetoed the resolution, saying that it interfered with Syrian sovereignty.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said France would work with its European and Arab partners to create what he called a “group of friends of the Syrian people” to apply international backing to the Arab League’s call for President Bashar al-Assad to step aside, the withdrawal of troops and a transition to democracy.

Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, and Mikhail Fradkov, head of the foreign intelligence service are to meet president Assad on Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, yesterday in the UN, the Cold war logic continues,” Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, told a security conference in Munich. “Russia and China did not vote based on the existing realities but more a reflexive attitude against the west.”

Nabil Elaraby, the Arab League’s secretary-general, said Arab states would not stop their efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis even though their bid to secure UN backing had been blocked. The Russian and Chinese veto “does not negate that there is clear international support for the resolutions of the Arab League … that called for President Bashar al-Assad to step aside so talks with the opposition could start,” Mr Elaraby said.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, described Saturday’s veto as a travesty. “Those countries that refused to support the Arab League plan bear full responsibility for protecting the brutal machine in Damascus,” she said.

“Faced with a neutered Security Council, we have to redouble our efforts outside of the UN with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people’s right to have a better future.”

Russia refused to take the blame for the failed resolution, calling the draft “unbalanced” in its demand for Mr Assad to step down but not making any demands on the opposition.

“The resolution draft did not take into account a requirement promoted by the Russian side for the Syrian opposition to distance themselves from extremist elements, who have chosen the path of violence,” the Russians foreign ministry said.

French officials said the scope of the contact group had yet to be fixed and it was too early to say when a meeting might be set up. But its main purpose would be to promote the Arab League initiative and to send a clear message to the Syrian opposition that they retained international support despite the failure of the Security Council resolution. “We absolutely have to help the Syrian people,” said one.

The officials likened it to an international contact group set up last year during the rebellion in Libya – although there is no suggestion that France is contemplating advocating military intervention in Syria. However, Paris mooted the idea last November of setting up humanitarian corridors in Syria, linked to the Turkish and Lebanese borders or to the coast, through which food and medical supplies could be channelled to civilians. Officials said this idea could be “on the table” for a contact group.

They added that representatives of Syrian opposition factions could be involved in the group – but work was going on in parallel to press the opposition to unify and work our a common platform.

Additional reporting by Reuters

Western and Arab governments try to persuade Moscow to accept resolution calling on Bashar al-Assad to step down

• Ian Black Middle East editor
• Wednesday 1 February 2012 18.43 GMT

The UN security council is expected to vote on the Syria resolution by early next week. Photograph: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

Russia is facing intensive efforts by western and Arab governments to persuade it not to veto a UN resolution calling on Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, to surrender power and end the country’s escalating crisis.

Ambassadors of the 15 members of the UN security council were meeting in New York late on Wednesday to assess support for an Arab-led drive to secure a peaceful end to the 10-month crackdown.

No vote is likely before Friday and it is unlikely it would be delayed beyond next Tuesday, diplomatic sources said, revealing attempts to convince Russia not to block the widely-supported draft text.

Western officials indicated that a Russian abstention would also be a satisfactory outcome, given the close relationship between Moscow and Damascus.

Russian officials suggested that a vote was not imminent. China, one of the five permanent members of the council, is thought likely to follow Russia. India, Pakistan and South Africa, which are all non-permanent members, were said to have softened their earlier objections.

Russia’s ambassador to the EU, Vladmimir Chuzhin, said the current text was “missing the most important thing: a clear clause ruling out the possibility that the resolution could be used to justify military intervention in Syrian affairs from outside.

“For this reason I see no chance this draft could be adopted,” he said.

Russia’s UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters in Moscow: “If it is a text that we consider erroneous, that will lead to a worsening of the crisis, we will not allow it to be passed. That is unequivocal.”

The US, Britain and France, backing a resolution that closely follows an Arab League plan, have insisted that it could not be used to authorise military action. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, dismissed comparisons with Libya, where the Nato-led intervention that helped overthrow the Gaddafi regime still rankles with Moscow.

Western diplomats made clear that they were exploring ways to provide Russia with the assurances it wanted, but pointed out that the resolution is under Chapter VI of the UN charter, which cannot authorise armed action.

“We will be flexible and take on Rusian concerns,” said one offiical. “It will take a lot of effort to get them to support this, but they are feeling uncomfortable. We don’t see any reason why this should be rejected.”

Russia has also described the resolution as a recipe for regime change. The Arab League and its western supporters insist it is not, calling it the best way out of the bloodiest current chapter of the Arab spring - in Clinton’s words, “a path for a political transition that would preserve Syria’s unity and institutions”.

The Arab League has called on Assad to hand power to his deputy and form a unity government with the opposition.

According to the UN, at least 5,400 people have been killed since the uprising began 10 months ago. Syrian opposition sources say the figure could be much higher. The Syrian government says it is facing an international conspiracy supporting “armed terrorist gangs”.

Amnesty International also called on Russia to stop blocking a UN resolution — after doing so last October. “Russia’s threats to abort a binding UN resolution on Syria for the second time are utterly irresponsible,” said José Luis Díaz, Amnesty’s representative to the UN. “Russia bears a heavy responsibility for allowing the brutal crackdown to continue.”

The latest diplomatic wrangling came on another day of violence across Syria, with reports from opposition sources that 52 people had been killed, mostly in the Damascus region. The Syrian Revolution General Commission said that 17 people had been killed in Homs and five in Deraa in the south, where the unprecedented unrest began last March. The Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria put the figure at 63 people killed.

(Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday it would veto any U.N. resolution on Syria that it finds unacceptable, after demanding any measure rule out military intervention to halt the bloodshed touched off by protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

The political violence in Syria has killed at least 5,000 people in the past 10 months and activists say Assad’s forces have stepped up operations this week on opposition strongholds, from Damascus suburbs to the cities of Hama, Homs and the border provinces of Deraa and Idlib.

Arab and Western states urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to act swiftly on a resolution calling for Assad to hand over powers to his deputy and defuse the 11-month-old uprising against his family’s dynastic rule.

“If the text will be unacceptable for us we will vote against it, of course,” Russian U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin told reporters in Moscow via a videolink from New York.

“If it is a text that we consider erroneous, that will lead to a worsening of the crisis, we will not allow it to be passed. That is unequivocal,” he said.

His remarks came hours after Russia’s envoy to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said there was no chance the Western-Arab draft text could be accepted unless it expressly rejected armed intervention.

Russia and China, both veto-wielding Security Council members, have resisted a Western push for a resolution condemning the Syrian government’s crackdown on unrest.

Despite the Russian comments, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said a “window of hope” had opened. “We will work furiously in the next few days to try and get a resolution that will allow the Arab League to forge ahead in finding a solution,” he told parliament in Paris.

Russia says the West exploited fuzzy wording in a March 2011 U.N. Security Council resolution on Libya to turn a mandate to protect civilians in the North African country’s uprising into a push to remove the government, backed by NATO air strikes, that led to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.

Russia has also expressed concern that the draft’s threat of further measures against Syria could lead to sanctions, which it opposes. Its diplomats also want to remove the draft’s support for the Arab League’s plan for Assad to cede power.

“ECONOMIC PRESSURE”

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who has led the Arab League’s efforts to tackle the Syrian crisis, attempted to allay Moscow and Beijing’s objections, saying it was trying to avoid a Libyan-style foreign role.

“We are not calling for foreign intervention,” he said. “We are advocating the exertion of concrete economic pressure so that the Syrian regime might realize that it is imperative to meet the demands of its people”.

He told the 15-member Security Council that Syria’s “killing machine is still at work”.

An activist group said Syrian troops killed eight people in the central city of Homs and that 15 government soldiers were killed in a clash with a defector unit. Syria’s state news agency SANA said a general, Rajeh Mahmoud, was killed along with three soldiers on the outskirts of Damascus on Wednesday.

Syrian insurgents said Assad’s forces extended a military sweep overnight to counter a rebel threat that had reached the gates of the capital, sending armor into eastern and northern suburbs that Assad’s forces took over this week. An activist group said at least 25 people had been killed in that sweep.

In Wadi Barada on the edge of the capital, four people were killed in a tank bombardment on Wednesday to flush out rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) units operating near the capital, activists said. A rebel spokesman put the death toll at 15.

SANA said troops killed 11 members of an “armed terrorist group” outside the southern city of Deraa, and that government forces discovered bomb factories and field hospitals in a raid on armed cells in Irbin and Sabqa, Damascus suburbs where insurgents had appeared recently.

It was not possible to verify the reports as Syria restricts access for independent media.

CALL FOR ACTION

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby called on the U.N. Security Council to take “rapid and decisive action” by approving the resolution.

“Do not let the Syrian people down in its plight,” he said.

The United States strongly endorsed the appeal from the Arab League and Qatar for “rapid and decisive action”, but China reiterated its reservations.

“China is firmly opposed to the use of force to solve the Syrian problem and resolutely opposes pushing for forced regime change in Syria, as it violates the United Nations Charter and the basic norms guiding the practice of international relations,” Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Li Baodong as telling the Security Council.

Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari rejected the suggestion his government was responsible for the crisis and accused Western powers of dreaming of “the return of colonialism and hegemony” in the Middle East.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the policy of isolation and trying to remove the government risked igniting a “much bigger drama” in the Middle East.

“The people who are obsessed with removing regimes in the region, they should be really thinking about the broader picture. And I’m afraid that if this vigor to change regimes persists, we are going to witness a very bad situation much, much, much broader than just Syria, Libya, Egypt or any other single country.”

(Additional reporting Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Mariam Karouny and Joseph Logan in Beirut and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Syria’s opposition called for a “day of mourning and anger” on Tuesday after almost 100 people, most of them civilians, reportedly died in spiralling violence ahead of a UN Security Council showdown

• Image Credit: AFP
• A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on January 29, 2012 shows a burnt bus at the scene of a blast blamed by the Syrian authorities on a “terrorist group” near a military barracks in Sahnaya on the outskirts of Damascus, in which six members of the security forces were killed, according to the agency. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in statements received in Nicosia, Cyprus on January 30 that rebel Syrian soldiers had “attacked a minibus carrying six security officers on their way to make arrests in Hirak, killing all of the passengers.”