Russia proposes changes to UN’s Syria draft Saturday, 04 February 2012 00:44

Demonstrators hold a vandalised poster of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as they take part in a protest against Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad after Friday prayers in Talbiseh, near Homs, yesterday.

UNITED NATIONS: UN Security Council envoys awaited proposed amendments from Moscow yesterday to the latest version of a European-Arab draft resolution endorsing an Arab League plan for Syria, and envoys said the issue would be decided by Russia and the United States.

Morocco circulated a revised draft on Thursday after Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told a closed council session he would veto it if it were put to a vote with a phrase saying the body “fully supports” the Arab plan calling for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to step aside, diplomats said.

A senior Western envoy, however, said that by the end of Thursday’s meeting the 15 ambassadors had agreed in principle on the new text, which includes the phrase “fully supports,” but that a final decision rested with national capitals.

First word from Moscow was that Russia’s leadership was not yet satisfied. Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov as saying the draft was “not enough for us to be able to support it in this form.”

Churkin was expected to deliver Russian suggestions for further revisions later on Friday, diplomats said.

“We’ll take a look at what they propose,” a diplomat said, adding that there was “not much room for substantial edits.”

Qatari Prime Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani told Al Jazeera television on Thursday that the Arab League would not accept any further concessions.

“The version which we have is the minimal which we can accept,” he said, adding that if Russia did not support the current version, it should use its veto.

Diplomats said Moscow was signaling that it did not want to veto the resolution, as Russia and China did in October to a European-drafted resolution condemning Syria. But envoys cautioned that the Russians would not hesitate to vote against a text they consider to be unacceptable.

The issue, they said, would likely be decided when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meet on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany this weekend.

“This is now between the United States and Russia,” a diplomat said. “The rest of us are waiting to see whether they can reach an agreement.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Clinton and Lavrov spoke on the telephone on Friday. They agreed that their UN delegations would continue working and the two would discuss the issue in Munich.

Envoys expected the resolution would not go to a vote before Monday, though a Saturday meeting remains a possibility.

Russia, a long-standing ally of and arms supplier to Damascus, has so far led opposition to Security Council action on Syria out of concern it could be seen as promoting “regime change” there or even lead to Libya-style outside military intervention in the conflict.

The current draft still says the council “fully supports” the Arab plan and diplomats said Russia would probably want that phrase changed. Several diplomats suggested that dropping the word “fully” might work, though it was unclear if the Qatar and other Arab states would accept that.

A senior US official declined to predict what the final vote would be but suggested the majority of the council backed it. “We are cautiously optimistic that we will have a very strong show of support for this resolution,” the official said.

If Moscow votes for the resolution, it likely will be adopted unanimously, as China and Pakistan are expected to follow Moscow’s lead, UN envoys said. All other council members have already signalled they will vote for it.

Reuters

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