Russia opposes calls for Assad to go as US and Europe draft UN resolution on Syria

Moscow opposes US and European calls for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to step down and believes he needs time to implement reforms as the western allies were draft a UN Security Council sanctions resolution on Syria after President Barack Obama led a chorus of calls by world leaders for Syria’s president to go.

Syria, meanwhile, accused Washington of waging “diplomatic war” against it.

“We do not support such calls and believe that it is necessary now to give President Assad’s regime time to realize all the reform processes that have been announced,” Interfax news agency cited a Russian foreign ministry source as saying on Friday.

The latest threat by Western powers on the 15-nation council comes after five months of an increasingly brutal Syrian government crackdown against protesters seeking an end to the 41-year authoritarian reign of President Bashar Al Assad and his late father, Hafez Al Assad.

“The time has come for the council to take further actions to step up the pressure against those who are responsible for the violence against the citizens of Syria," Britain’s deputy UN ambassador, Philip Parham, told reporters after a closed-door council meeting on Syria, Al Arabiya correspondent reported.

“We will be working on a Security Council resolution that will include measures to apply that pressure,” he said.

The US, German, French and Portuguese envoys echoed Mr. Parham’s remarks, making clear they would help draft what all envoys said would be a UN sanctions resolution, according to Reuters.

“More than ever, the council should increase pressure on Assad’s regime,” US deputy envoy Rosemary DiCarlo said.

Measures against Damascus

Spain said Friday it is joining calls for UN Security Council sanctions against Syria's government, blamed for at least 2,000 deaths since protests started in mid-March.

Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez said Spain is backing Britain, France, Germany and Portugal, which are preparing a sanctions resolution against President Assad’s government

It was not immediately clear what measures they would seek and what Russia and China, veto-wielding permanent members which can strike down any measure, think about the idea of sanctioning Damascus.

Moscow and Beijing have called for dialogue. For months they helped prevent the council from condemning the crackdown until its members issued a statement on Aug. 3 that criticized the violence and called for the clampdown to stop.

Earlier on Thursday, President Obama led a chorus of calls by world leaders for Syria’s president to step down, as the United Nations warned his regime could be guilty of crimes against humanity.

President Obama also slapped harsh new sanctions on Syria, freezing state assets and blacklisting the oil and gas sector, in an escalation of pressure aimed at halting a bloody protest crackdown that has claimed more than 2,000 lives, according to AFP.

Syria’s UN ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, accused Washington of waging a “diplomatic and humanitarian war” against Syria along with some other Security Council members.

“These countries are trying to settle their old accounts with my country,” he said. “These forces have nothing but hatred against my country and my nation.”

He pointed out that the Security Council, which has been sharply divided on the issue of Syria, again failed to agree on any outcome on Thursday. “Thank God we have wise guys inside this council,” he said.

The time has come for the council to take further actions to step up the pressure against those who are responsible for the violence against the citizens of Syria

Britain’s deputy UN ambassador, Philip Parham

Military operations

Mr. Jaafari was also asked if it was true that President Assad told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday that Damascus had ended all military operations.

He said it was “already a fact on the ground, the military and police operations stopped in Syria.” Mr. Parham said he did not believe the military operations had ceased.

Syrian activists told Al Arabiya that the military operations did not stop across Syria and that the brutal crackdown on civilian protesters continued.

Syrian security forces deployed in force Thursday in several locations, including the suburbs of Damascus, where protests were reported and shots were heard, a rights group said.

The council heard briefings on Syria from UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, the world body’s humanitarian coordinator Valerie Amos and UN political affairs chief Lynn Pascoe.

Ms. Pillay told reporters afterward that the Syrian government might have committed crimes against humanity, adding she had echoed a recommendation in a new UN Human Rights Council report that the council should consider referring Syria to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Council diplomats say Russia and China would be reluctant to vote for a referral of Syria’s case to the ICC at the current time. The Western envoys did not voice explicit support for an ICC referral after Thursday’s council meeting, according to Reuters.

Ms. Amos told reporters a UN team was heading to Syria over the weekend to assess the humanitarian situation there and that the government had promised the team unfettered access. Ms. Amos and Mr. Ban have been asking for Damascus’ permission to send such a mission to Syria since May.

These countries are trying to settle their old accounts with my country. These forces have nothing but hatred against my country and my nation

Syria’s UN ambassador, Bashar Jaafari

First explicit call

Thursday’s call was the first explicit US call for President Assad to resign since the pro-democracy uprising--inspired by the revolts that toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia--erupted in mid-March.

The White House later Thursday expressed hope that the European Union would follow suit, conscious that the United States has only limited leverage over Damascus compared to the Europeans, whose oil purchases help to bolster the regime.

“We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. He has not led. For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside,” President Obama said, according to AFP.

His call was quickly echoed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

“We call on him to face the reality of the complete rejection of his regime by the Syrian people and to step aside in the best interests of Syria and the unity of its people,” the trio said in a joint statement.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the new US sanctions banning investment and most other economic activities in Syria as well as imports of Syrian oil and gas would “strike at the heart of the Syrian regime.”

White House spokesman Josh Earnest later told reporters on board Air Force One that the Obama administration expected the European Union to unveil fresh economic sanctions on Syria “soon.”

European nations buy the bulk of the oil sent abroad by Syria, which exported some 148,000 barrels a day in 2009, according to the US government’s Energy Information Administration.

“America doesn’t have the ability to do it alone. But they are acting as a choir-master and hoping that by setting an example, Europe will pull the plug,” said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

On Monday, the UN Human Rights Council is to hold a special session on Syria requested by 24 members, including four Arab members--Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. He has not led. For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside

US President Barack Obama