Russia has offered conditional support for Western efforts to persuade the U.N. Security Council to approve a Syria peace plan drafted by international envoy Kofi Annan.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday Moscow believes the Security Council should support Annan’s continuing efforts to achieve agreement between all Syrians engaged in the country’s year-long unrest.
But Lavrov said any Council statement or resolution on the crisis must not impose an ultimatum on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a longtime Russian ally. He also said the details of Annan’s peace plan for Syria must be released and debated.
Annan sent a five-member team of international experts to Syria on Sunday to try to secure a cease-fire between government and rebel forces leading an uprising against Mr. Assad’s 11-year autocratic rule. Annan discussed his peace plan with Mr. Assad in Damascus earlier this month, but has said little about it since.
The U.N. Security Council was expected to meet Tuesday in New York to debate a French draft statement that backs Annan’s peace efforts but also warns of possible “further measures” if the Syrian government rejects them. Russia and China have twice vetoed earlier Security Council proposals on Syria, saying the Western and Arab-backed draft resolutions amounted to interference in the country’s internal affairs.
Syrian activists say government troops shelled several opposition hubs across the country on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people in the central regions of Homs, Hama and elsewhere. They say one soldier also was killed in southern Syria. Syrian state news agency SANA said seven other security personnel were buried Tuesday, after being killed in fighting with rebels.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the situation in Syria as “unacceptable” and “intolerable.” Mr. Ban made the comments in Bogor, Indonesia, in response to a VOA Indonesian service reporter’s question at a joint news conference with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
He said the international community has “no time to waste” in trying to end Syria’s violence, warning that “one minute, one hour (of) delay will mean the death of more and more people.”
The United Nations says at least 8,000 people have been killed in the Assad government’s violent crackdown on the revolt, which began with peaceful protests and became increasingly militarized as army defectors attacked pro-Assad troops who assaulted civilians.
Syria’s armed opposition faced its first significant criticism from a major rights organization on Tuesday, with New York-based group Human Rights Watch accusing some rebels of committing serious abuses, including kidnappings, torture and executions.
HRW made the accusation in an open letter to Syria’s main exiled opposition group, the Syrian National Council. It said the Syrian government’s “brutal tactics cannot justify abuses by armed opposition groups” against Syrian security forces and Assad supporters. The rights group said Syrian opposition leaders should urge the rebels to stop such abuses.
