UN Security Council Fails To Agree Draft Resolution On Syria
By Ria Novosti
Members of the UN Security Council have not yet reached a compromise on the text of a draft resolution condemning violence against anti-government protesters in Syria.
The council met behind closed doors on Thursday in an attempt to bridge the differences between the European members and the United States on the one hand and the so-called BRICS countries – Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa – over whether to include the possibility of sanctions against President Bashar Assad’s government in the document.
“We had a good discussion, but we’ll see…whether the result reflects the efforts taken to reach a compromise,” Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said after the meeting.
The Europeans insist that the Assad’s regime should be threatened with tough sanctions if it fails to stop its crackdown on opposition within 30 days since the adoption of the resolution.
The BRICS countries, led by Russia, stand firmly against any mention of sanctions citing the example of Libya where the NATO countries largely overstepped the UN mandate in a military operation against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
The Syrian government has used force to crush opposition protests, which followed a wave of uprisings in other Arab countries. The UN says over 2,000 people have died since the start of the protests in March.
The United States and the EU have already imposed unilateral sanctions on Syria and have called for Assad to step down.
On September 21, U.S. President Barack Obama urged the UN Security Council to impose new sanctions against Syria over its crackdown on opposition protesters. On September 23 the EU imposed a fresh round of sanctions.
