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UN Security Council Discuss 'Variety of Options' on Syria |
8 June 2012International envoy Kofi Annan said Thursday efforts were being made to prevent Syria from getting into a full-blown civil war, now that the country has already drifted into a "sort of civil war", dpa reported.
"Given the level of violence and actors on the ground, we could say it has drifted, if it's not already, in a sort of civil war," Ban told reporters following a closed-door meeting with the UN Security Council in New York.
"All efforts were being made to ensure that it will not become a full civil war and it does not spill into the neighbours," he said.
Annan, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon huddled for about three hours in discussion with the 15-nation council to try to find non-military solutions that would end the 15-month conflict in Syria. But they did not say exactly what was discussed.
At the end of the closed-door meeting, Ban said "a variety of options on the way forward" had been discussed and it would be up to the council decide.
"We need all options, and we need to send a clear message and speak with one voice that the violence must stop on both sides," Ban said without elaborating.
Al-Arabi said the Arab League supports Annan and Ban to work out the options so long as they are "action oriented, with all kind of pressure without involving the military."
Annan is to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Friday in Washington. Clinton's special representative on Syria, Fred Hof, will be in Moscow Friday pressuring Russia to support a stronger UN intervention in the crisis.
Before the Security Council meeting, Ban, Annan and Al-Arabi addressed the UN General Assembly. Ban informed the 193 UN members that UN ceasefire observers were shot at in Syria as they tried to reach the site of a reported massacre on Wednesday.
Annan had also told the assembly that Syria was on the brink of an "all-out civil war."
The UN monitors were "shot at with small arms" Ban said, but the monitors were still working to gain access to the scene.
More than 100 people are reported to have been killed Wednesday by paramilitaries supporting the government of President Bashar al-Assad in two villages, al-Qubair and Maarazaf, in the central province of Hama. The government blamed the killings on what it called "terrorists."
If confirmed, the mass killings would be the second such massacre in less than three weeks. More than 100 people, mainly children, were summarily executed in the central Syrian town of Houla on May 25.
"We condemn this unspeakable barbarity and renew our determination to bring those responsible to account," Ban said.
Annan urged the UN to "act quickly," saying: "I think there will be brutal repression, massacre and even an all-out civil war in which all Syrians will lose."
He admitted that his six-point peace plan, including an April 12 ceasefire, and the deployment of 300 UN observers, was failing, saying that he had told al-Assad to radically change tactics when the two met in Damascus last month.
Since then, however the shelling of cities has intensified while "government-backed militia seem to have free rein with appalling consequences," he said.
He said a series of bombings had also made the situation more complex and indicated "the presence of a third actor."
At least 14 people were killed across Syria on Thursday, according to activists, who said the government was focusing its attacks on the central province of Homs.
Reports from Syria are hard to independently verify, as authorities have barred most foreign media from the country since the pro-democracy uprising started in March last year.
Arab countries have already begun to express doubts about the viability of Annan's plan, while on Thursday the opposition called on rebels to escalate their campaign against al-Assad's regime.
Russia called on the UN to set up an international conference on Syria, saying that economic sanctions and threats of military intervention were "not working."
In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney condemned "the outrageous targeted killings of civilians including women and children." The European Union said it was imperative "now, more than ever," to end the "dreadful spiral of violence." |
8 June 2012
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