adminThe disagreement at the UN came as clashes were reported across Syria’s flashpoint regions, leaving at least 68 people dead, mostly civilians, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), an opposition group monitoring the uprising.
The group said on Wednesday that two women, two children and 14 fighters of the self-proclaimed Free Syrian Army were among the dead.
At least 35 of the deaths occurred in Wady Barada, a Damascus suburb; another 14 in Homs; eight in Daraa; and three in Idlib, the LCC said.
Some activists said on Wednesday that violence had claimed nearly 200 lives across Syria over the previous three days. The figures could not be independently confirmed.
On the diplomatic front, the US secretary of state, backed by her French and British counterparts, led a push on Tuesday for a tough UN resolution that would call on President Bashar al-Assad to end the bloodshed and hand over power.
“We all know that change is coming to Syria. Despite its ruthless tactics, the Assad regime’s reign of terror will end,” Hillary Clinton told the Security Council.
“The question for us is: How many more innocent civilians will die before this country is able to move forward?”
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, the Qatari prime minister, speaking at the same Security Council debate on behalf of the Arab League, said Assad’s government had “failed to make any sincere effort” to end the crisis and believed the only solution was “to kill its own people”.
“Bloodshed continued and the killing machine is still at work,” he said.
However, Russia, a longstanding ally of Assad and one of the government’s main suppliers of weapons, has appeared to rule out the possibility of a quick vote.
“Attempts are being made to find a text that is acceptable to all sides and would help find a political solution for the situation in Syria,” the Interfax news agency quoted the Russian deputy foreign minister, Gennady Gatilov, as saying on Wednesday.
“Therefore there is going to be no vote in the next days.”
Russia has declared that the Security Council does not have the authority to impose a resolution that called for regime change in Syria, a position supported by China.
“If the text is unacceptable then we will vote against,” Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency. — Al Jazeera.
Online Reporter