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Syria tightens Hama siege, Italy pulls ambassador

03 August 2011 01:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Syrian troops tightened their siege on the city of Hama Tuesday, sending residents fleeing for their lives and drawing a fresh wave of international condemnation against a regime defying the growing calls to end its crackdown on anti-government protesters, APA reports referring news.yahoo.com webpage .
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with U.S.-based Syrian democracy activists as the Obama administration weighed new sanctions on Syria. Congressional calls also mounted for action against President Bashar Assad’s regime, as the death toll from two days of military assaults on civilians Sunday and Monday neared 100.
Italy recalled its ambassador to Syria "in the face of the horrible repression against the civil population" by the government, which launched a new push against protesters as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began Monday. It was the first European Union country to pull its ambassador, and the measure came a day after the EU tightened sanctions on Syria.
The mounting international outcry has had no apparent effect so far in Syria, an autocratic country that relies on Iran as a main ally in the region.
The top U.S. military officer said Washington wants to pressure the Syrian regime. But he added there was no immediate prospect of a Libya-style military intervention.
"There’s no indication whatsoever that the Americans, that we would get involved directly with respect to this," Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said Tuesday.
The British Foreign Office said it shares Italy’s "strong concerns about the situation in Syria" but is not recalling its ambassador.
"In the absence of an end to the senseless violence and a genuine process of political reform, we will continue to pursue further EU sanctions," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement. Without change "President Assad and those around him will find themselves isolated internationally and discredited within Syria."
At U.N. headquarters in New York, the Security Council met behind closed doors Tuesday to discuss a revised European-drafted resolution backed by the U.S. that has been languishing since late May that would condemn Syria’s attacks against civilians.
Russia softened its stance, indicating it would not oppose such a resolution. Last month, Russia and China had threatened to veto such a resolution, effectively blocking it.
But Sergei Vershinin, chief of the Foreign Ministry’s Middle East and North Africa Department, told Russian news agencies Tuesday that such a resolution should not impose sanctions because that would only escalate the conflict.
Still there was no sign the Syrian regime was willing to back down.