Thursday, 19 December 2013

Russia blocks U.N. action against Syria air attacks (AFP)

The Associated Press, United Nations
Friday, 20 December 2013
Russia objected to a proposed U.N. Security Council statement
expressing outrage at Syrian government airstrikes, especially
this week’s indiscriminate use of heavy weapons in Aleppo that
have killed more than 100 people, U.N. diplomats said Thursday.
The statement, proposed by the United States, required approval
from all 15 council members.
Diplomats said Russia, the most important ally of Syrian
President Bashar Assad, wanted all references to the regime
stripped from the statement so the U.S. decided to drop it. The
diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the
statement was circulated privately.
The statement would also have condemned violence by all
parties in Syria and expressed deep concern at the escalating
level of violence in the Syrian conflict, including the use of Scud
missiles and “barrel bombs” in Aleppo.
Russia and China, which also supports the Assad government,
have vetoed three resolutions that would have pressured Assad
to end the violence. They were backed by the U.S. and its
Western allies who support the opposition.
Kurtis Cooper, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United
Nations, said the United States is “very disappointed that a
Security Council statement expressing our collective outrage at
the brutal and indiscriminant tactics employed by the Syrian
regime against civilians has been blocked.”
“These barrel bombs - and the explosive materials contained
within them - further underscore the brutality of the Assad
regime and the lengths they will go to attack and kill their own
people, including women and children. ... And regime air raids in
and around Aleppo have continued unabated,” Cooper said.
“Surely, at a minimum, the Security Council should be able to
condemn such barbarities.”
Before Russia’s objection was made known, Syria’s main
opposition group in exile, the Western-backed Syrian National
Coalition, criticized the Security Council for considering “a mere
press statement” to protest “the latest act of terror” in Aleppo.
The coalition also accused the council of failing “to take any
steps to eliminate the use of conventional weapons that are
being used as weapons of mass destruction on a much larger
scale.”
In a withering air assault this week, the Syrian government has
pummeled opposition-held neighborhoods in the northern city
of Aleppo, leveling apartment buildings and flooding hospitals
with casualties.
Rebels say the unusually intense airstrikes in Aleppo have
prompted civilians to flee to the countryside and could portend a
government ground offensive against the opposition-held half of
the city, which has been divided for a year and half by grueling
fighting.
The government launched the campaign five weeks before peace
talks are scheduled to begin on Jan. 22 in Montreaux,
Switzerland, sparking speculation that Assad may be trying to
strengthen his position on the ground and expose opposition
weaknesses before sitting down at the negotiating table.
The proposed U.S. statement would have welcomed the Jan. 22
conference aimed at ending the Syrian conflict and reiterated the
council’s call for greater access for humanitarian workers to
deliver desperately needed aid.

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