Morocco World News
Morocco World News
New York, June 8, 2011 (Al Arabiya)
The United Nations Security Council is set to discuss a draft resolution on Syria, Al Arabiya reported on Wednesday, as scores of Syrian refugees fleeing repression arrived in Turkey where they were looked after by police.
France, Britain, Germany and Portugal have circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution that would condemn Syria for its killing and torture of peaceful protesters and demand an immediate end to the violence. But veto-wielding Russia has voiced opposition.
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe of France told reporters after a council meeting Tuesday on HIV/AIDS that it’s “inconceivable” that the Security Council is remaining silent when repression in Syria is getting worse and massacres are increasing, according to Agence-France Presse.
Mr. Juppe said the resolution’s supporters are waiting for as large a majority as possible in the 15-member council before bringing the resolution to a vote, “and I think it’s a question of days, maybe hours.”
France is Syria’s former colonial ruler with whom President Bashar Al Assad has maintained good relations. The foreign minister said Mr. Assad had lost his legitimacy to rule. Foreign Secretary William Hague of Britain said Mr. Assad must “reform or step aside.”
President Barack Obama of the United States, who last month urged Mr. Assad to lead a transition to democracy or “get out of the way,” did not mention Syria in remarks at a news briefing on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
But in Brussels, Russia’s envoy to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said: “The prospect of a UN Security Council resolution that’s along the same lines as Resolution 1973 on Libya will not be supported by my country … The use of force, as Libya shows, does not provide answers.”
Veto-holding Russia abstained on the Libya vote, allowing NATO to begin a bombing campaign that Western powers say saved civilians in revolt-held Benghazi from an onslaught by Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s forces, but which has failed to dislodge the Libyan leader.
Syria’s ambassador to France strongly denied a report on Tuesday that she had resigned in protest at the government’s repression of protests, saying it was part of a campaign of disinformation against Damascus.
Lamia Chakkour, shown standing in front of a portrait of Syrian President Assad in the Paris embassy, told France’s BFM television that a report by news channel France 24, featuring a telephone interview with a woman claiming to be her, was false.
Excerpted from Al Arabiya.
