Americas

Americas

U.S. to Continue Syria Resolution Discussions with Russia

18 January 2012 03:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The United States is holding consultations with Russia on its new draft resolution on Syria, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Tuesday, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

â€œWe should try to talk to the Russians a little bit more about this draft,â€ Toner said.

â€œItâ€™s evident, obviously, that more work needs to be done from what weâ€™ve seen so far. Weâ€™re going to stay engaged on thisâ€¦ And weâ€™re going to work to realize a draft resolution that holds the [Bashar al-] Assad regime accountable, but also, obviously, supports the Arab League efforts in this regard,â€ he said.

On Tuesday, Russia circulated a draft of the United Nations Security Councilâ€™s resolution on Syria, its third since December, but Western diplomats remained unimpressed, dismissing it as â€œsmall tweaksâ€ and â€œplaying for time.â€

The revised draft incorporated some proposals proposed by Western countries but still avoids promoting any direct pressure on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom the United States and the European Union accuse of waging a bloody war on political dissent.

The document includes Franceâ€™s call on the Syrian government to â€œcease all violence [and] release all those arrested due to the recent incidentsâ€ and also a joint proposal by France and Portugal calling on Syria to let international media and humanitarian organizations into the country.

But it also reiterates â€œthe need to resolve the current crisis in Syria peacefully, ruling out any military intervention from outside,â€ a point that Russia has long been insisting on.

Russia, a longtime ally of Syria, has been vehemently opposing any kind of a crackdown on Assadâ€™s regime, which has been struggling since last March to quell the wave of political protests that engulfed the country.

At least 5,000 have been killed in clashes between the government and the protesters, according to UN estimates. Assadâ€™s government is insisting that its opponents are terrorists supported by unidentified outside forces.

The Arab League, a group of 22 countries, has suspended Syriaâ€™s membership in November and negotiated dispatching an observer mission to the country. The 50-strong mission, which arrived in late December, has so far failed to stop or at least decrease the bloodshed.

Russia has repeatedly insisted that the Western drive for a stronger crackdown on Syria is preparation for a â€œLibyan scenario.â€ Rebels ousted and killed long-standing Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in October after a military standoff lasting many months in which they received help from NATO forces.

In what observers saw as an implicit sign of Russian support for Syria, several Russian warships called at the countryâ€™s port of Tartus earlier this month. Another vessel that Cypriot media reported carried tons of ammunition made its way last week to Tartus from St. Petersburg.