Nato urged to act as death toll mounts
SYRIA
THE death toll from fighting in Syria’s civil war has escalated sharply, as expectations grow that a foreign military intervention will be necessary to contain the bloodshed.
Activist groups that track the killing said that more than 5000 people were forecast to die this month alone, substantially above the 4000 in August. By contrast, the worst month in the Iraq conflict, after the initial invasion, accounted for 3028 lives in July 2006.
The United Nations refugee agency predicted that up to 700,000 Syrians could flee abroad by the end of the year, nearly quadrupling its previous forecast.
Lord Owen, the former foreign secretary who oversaw peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia, warned yesterday that the scale and nature of the conflict would eventually demand a united response from Russia and the West.
‘‘This is a full-scale civil war and my experience is that only an enforceable ceasefire will end it,’’ he said. ‘‘Time is not on our side given the ghastliness of the fighting, the number of massacres and horrors of sectarian divisions becoming permanent facts on the ground.’’
In an article for the Daily Telegraph, Lord Owen calls on Nato to use its formal ties with Russia to start talks on enforcing a no-fly zone in a joint arrangement that would not be aimed at the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, escalated the ‘‘blame game’’, accusing the US and others of sowing chaos in Syria. ‘‘The most important thing is that our partners cannot stop themselves,’’ he said. ‘‘They have already created a situation of chaos in many territories and are now continuing the same policy in other countries, including Syria.’’
Michael Clarke, head of the Royal United Services Institute think tank, predicted that Syria’s neighbours would be sucked into choosing sides in what is likely to be a drawn-out battle. ‘‘As this becomes a fully fledged sectarian war in the next couple of months the whole fabric of the Levant will be torn apart and what you will have is a Saudi Arabia v Iranian proxy war involving elements in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan.
‘‘The West is going to find it harder and harder to resist calls to intervene to contain the problem rather than stop the killing.’’
British Prime Minister David Cameron has condemned the Russian and Chinese governments for blocking UN-backed action to stop the conflict, while Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, said: ‘‘The sheer scale of the suffering being endured in Syria demands that the international community renews its ef- forts to achieve unity and action.’’
Arab states have endeavoured to end the conflict but are divided over regional military intervention. Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s new president, opposed calls from the Emir of Qatar for a military intervention by Arab League states, while a meeting he had called of the Middle East ‘‘quartet’’ – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran – was cancelled after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan decided not to travel to New York.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi Arabian ambassador to America, told CNN that ‘‘Nato and some combination’’ of other states would eventually be forced to intervene to quell fighting. ‘‘That requires military force,’’ he said.
Wednesday was the most lethal day of the Syrian civil war yet, according to activist support groups inside and outside the country. The toll reached 343, according to one count.
Syrian opposition groups put the overall death toll in the 18-month war above 30,000. Amnesty International puts the toll at 21,000-plus.