Annan to propose plan on Syria crisis
World powers will be asked for a strategy
GAINST the backdrop of a new massacre in Syria, international envoy Kofi Annan would today propose tasking a group of world powers and key regional players, including Iran, to come up with a strategy to end the 15month conflict, UN diplomats said.
Annan would present the UN with a plan for creating a “contact group” whose final proposal must be acceptable to Syria’s allies Russia and China, which have blocked all UN action, as well as the US and its European allies, who insist that President Bashar Assad must go, they said.
There had also been talk about a meeting of key world leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Mexico later this month to discuss the growing crisis in Syria and possible next steps, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations have been private.
“It’s time for all of us to turn our attention to an orderly transition of power in Syria that would pave the way for democratic, tolerant, pluralistic future,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters yesterday before leaving Azerbaijan for Turkey.
The violence in
Aincreasingly chaotic in recent months, and it is difficult to assign blame for much of the bloodshed. The government restricts journalists from moving freely, making it nearly impossible to independently verify accounts from either side. The opposition blames government forces and militias that support them known as shabihas while the government blames rebels and “armed terrorist groups”.
At the UN, diplomats are increasingly concerned that the country is spiralling towards civil war.
Annan, the joint UN-Arab League envoy, would give his latest assessment of the Syrian conflict at an open meeting of the UN General Assembly today along with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby, and a representative of UN human rights chief Navi Pillay. Annan would then brief the UN Security Council this afternoon and have dinner with ambassadors from the council’s five permanent nations – the US, Russia, China, Britain and France, a council diplomat said.
Reports by Syrian activists of a surge of bloodshed in the central Hama province late yesterday, with at least 23 people killed – and possibly many more – are bound to reinforce the growing belief that Annan’s six-point peace plan is unravelling.
The violence comes on the heels of a horrific massacre on May 25 and 26 in Houla, a cluster of villages in the central Homs province, which left more than 100 dead including many women and children gunned down in their homes. UN investigators blamed pro-government gunmen for at least some of the killings, but the Syrian regime denied responsibility and blamed rebels for the attacks.
US Ambassador Susan Rice warned last week that the worst but most probable scenario in Syria is a failure of Annan’s peace plan and a spreading conflict that creates “a major crisis” not only in Syria but region-wide. To avoid this, Rice urged Syria to implement the plan and if it doesn’t she said the Security Council should set aside its differences and increase the pressure on Syria with sanctions.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner followed up yesterday, warning Syria that UN sanctions may be near and calling for the world to exert “maximum financial pressure” on Assad’s government.
Russia and China, however, who have vetoed two resolutions threatening possible sanctions, issued a joint statement after a summit in Beijing reiterating their opposition to any outside military interference or forceful imposition of “regime change” in Syria. The statement also indicated opposition to UN sanctions.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Beijing yesterday that Moscow was proposing an international conference on Syria to try to persuade all Syrian opposition groups to respect Annan’s plan, end all violence and sit down for talks.
“Russia considers it essential to fulfil Kofi Annan’s peace plan along with the UN Security Council resolution that approved this plan,” Lavrov said in remarks posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.
“We believe that it’s necessary to convene a meeting of the countries which have a real influence with various opposition groups” including the permanent members of the UN Security Council, Turkey, Iran, the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation and the EU, he said.
UN diplomats said the key to the success of any Annan initiative was whether it could get all parties behind a transition strategy, and that still remained a distant goal. – Sapa-AP