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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2012
Palestinians, police
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Death toll rises to 23 in
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TUNIS: United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) greets Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (L), United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-
Nahyan (2nd L) and British Foreign Minister William Hague (2nd R), in Tunis, yesterday, during the “Friends of Syria” conference at which representatives from over 60 countries will
discuss the crisis in Syria, with a focus on aid and a political resolution of the violent conflict which has killed over 7,000 people since the beginning of pro-democracy demonstrations
a year ago. — AFP
‘Friends of Syria’ calls for UN action
Pro-Syrian crowd tries to storm Tunisia meeting
TUNIS: The nations that make up the Friends of
Syria group will call yesterday for the United
Nations to begin planning a Syria peacekeeping
mission once the regime agrees to a cease-fire, a
senior diplomat said.
The United States, European and Arab
nations were set to demand that Syrian
President Bashar Assad agree to an immediate
cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid into areas
hardest hit by his regime’s brutal crackdown on
opponents, or face as-yet unspecified punishments
and an increasingly emboldened and
powerful armed resistance.
Assuming he agrees now, after ignoring
numerous similar demands, the UN would then
send in a peacekeeping force with the permission
of the ruling authority in Syria, whether it is
Assad or a successor. The Friends of Syria, meeting
Friday in Tunisia, have no more leverage
than in previous attempts, either as individual
nations or through the United Nations, to make
Assad leave. But the diplomat said the demand
by the nearly 70 nations involved in the group
will simply increase pressure on Assad to see
that his demise is inevitable.
The language in the statement will allow UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to begin recruiting
nations to join the peacekeeping force,
billed as a non-military operation, and start
identifying its mandate.
The plan is also designed to signal Russia and
China, the two nations that have consistently
opposed any foreign intervention in Syria, that
their continued support of Assad could leave
them out of business and diplomatic opportunities
in what the group hopes will be a new Syria.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague
described the Syrian government as a “criminal
regime” as he arrived at the conference and said
he was meeting with the opposition umbrella
group, the Syrian National Council, boosting
their stature. “We will also intensify our links
with the opposition,” he said. “We will treat
them and recognize them as a legitimate representative
of the Syrian people.” “I hope those
countries will take note of this strength of international
feeling and support that we are seeing
here in Tunis,” Hague said about Russia and
China. “There are more than 60 countries coming
together, because it means that they are
increasingly isolated in their views.”
Alexei Pushkov, a Russian lawmaker, said
after meeting Assad that the Syrian president
sounded confident and demonstrated no sign
he would he step aside. Pushkov warned that
arming the Syrian opposition would fuel civil
war. For their part, the Syrian National Council
has welcomed the conference as part of their
call for a peaceful transition to a democratic
regime. “This conference will help the Syrian
people, the revolutionaries, I think; they will give
us the power as a national council, a political
umbrella for the revolution inside Syria,” said
Haithem al-Maleh, executive director of the
group. As the conference began yesterday,
about 200 pro-Syrian demonstrators tried to
storm the hotel. The protest forced Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton to be diverted to
her hotel, delaying her appearance.
The protesters, waving Syrian and Tunisian
flags, tussled with police and carried signs criticizing
Clinton and President Barack Obama. They
were driven out of the parking lot by police after
about 15 minutes. On Thursday, the Friends of
Syria worked out details of the demands in
London as the former UN chief, Kofi Annan, was
named to be a joint UN-Arab League envoy to
deal with the crisis. Russia and China reiterated
their opposition to an international resolution.
Both nations say they support a “speedy end” to
the violence, but they have vetoed two
UNSecurity Council resolutions backing Arab
League plans aimed at ending the conflict and
condemning Assad’s crackdown. —AP