Europe submits UN resolution condemning Syria

UNITED NATIONS: Four European nations have circulated a new draft resolution condemning Syrian President Bashar al- Assad’s regime actions in the latest international effort to compel the regime to stop using violence against protesters.

Reacting to new clashes in Syria, European powers re-launched a dormant draft UN resolution to condemn Damascus for its crackdown on protesters, circulating a revised text to the Security Council at a meeting Monday, diplomats said. Germany requested the closed-door meeting after human rights groups said “Syrian troops killed 80 people Sunday when they stormed the city of Hama to crush protests amid a five-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad`s regime.”

The Security Council was briefed on the latest events in Syria by Oscar Fernandez Taranco, deputy head of the UN political department.

“The Europeans are still talking about a resolution and we support that very strongly,” U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said yesterday going into the first round of consultations. “We want to understand why others wouldn’t do the same particularly in light of what has transpired over the last few days.”

There is the possibility that rather than a resolution, the 15-member council could gravitate toward a “presidential statement”, which doesn’t carry the same weight of a resolution yet could win over skeptics such as Russia.

Rice said the U.S., while preferring a resolution, would welcome a “strong and substantive” statement, which must be reached by unanimous consent.

Russia’s Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said a presidential statement would be “satisfactory” given that the format of the resolution is “somewhat excessive” and we are “still under the shadow of events in Libya,” where the Security Council dealt with events “frivolously.”

“I think there are some indications that positions are shifting,” Britain’s UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said. He added that the mood could be changing following the latest news about Hama. Lyall Grant said the Europeans were thinking of calling ambassador-level negotiations Tuesday on the text. Britain, France, Germany and Portugal are the four Western European countries on the council.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said: “We think it’s important that they (the Security Council) send a strong and unified message to President al-Assad and his regime.”

Diplomats said the revised version was similar to its predecessor, updated to take in more recent events, and did not call for sanctions against Syria or a referral of Syrian leaders to the International Criminal Court.

Critics have said they fear that even a simple condemnation could be the first step toward Western military intervention in Syria, as happened in Libya in March.