UNITED NATIONS - The United States, its European allies and the U.N. chief slammed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday for a year-long assault on anti-government protests that has killed thousands and brought Syria to the brink of civil war.
The Western powers also urged Russia and China, which have twice vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s attacks on its own citizens, to stop preventing council action against Damascus.
Moscow, however, voiced its "grave concern" at the deteriorating situation in Syria, its close ally, and called for an immediate end to all violence.
Speaking at a special U.N. Security Council meeting on the "Arab Spring" uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed to Assad to act within the next few days on peace proposals by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.
"The Syrian government has failed to fulfill its responsibility to protect its own people and instead has subjected its citizens in several cities to military assault and disproportionate use of force," Ban told the 15-nation council. "These shameful operations continue."
A popular uprising against Assad erupted a year ago and the United Nations estimates Syrian security forces have killed well over 7,500 people. Syria said in December that "terrorists" had killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton assailed Assad for launching new attacks while meeting with Annan to discuss the former U.N. chief’s peace proposals in Damascus at the weekend.
"How cynical that, even as Assad was receiving former (U.N) Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Syrian Army was conducting a fresh assault on Idlib and continuing its aggression in Hama, Homs, and Rastan," she said.
Assad said after meeting Annan on Saturday that dialogue with the opposition would not be successful while "armed terrorist groups" continued to spread instability.
Clinton also took a shot at Russia and China, which have demanded that fellow council members balance any condemnations of the Syrian government’s violence with rebukes of the opposition, a position the Western powers refuse to accept.
"We reject any equivalence between premeditated murders by a government’s military machine and the actions of civilians under siege driven to self-defense," Clinton said.
CLINTON URGES ASSAD TO END VIOLENCE FIRST
"First and foremost the Assad government has to end the violence," Clinton told reporters after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"Once the Syrian government has acted, then we would expect others as well to end the violence," she said. "But there cannot be an expectation for defenseless citizens in the face of artillery assaults to end their capacity to defend themselves before there’s a commitment by the Assad regime to do so."
Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s complaints about NATO operations in Libya, where Russia says the alliance went beyond its mandate to protect civilians last year after rebels rose up against the government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was ousted and killed by opposition forces.
"There is no doubt whatsoever that the Syrian authorities bear a huge responsibility for the current situation," he said.
But, he added, there was no point in talking about who started the violence and Security Council should press for an "immediate end of violence" by all sides.
That position appeared to be at odds with Clinton’s insistence that Assad’s forces put down their weapons first.
Washington and Paris have said that a third draft Security Council resolution urging an end to the violence in Syria and access for humanitarian aid agencies – this time written by the United States – was unlikely to be adopted because of opposition from Moscow and Beijing.
Lavrov suggested Moscow could back a resolution in line with Russia’s March 10 agreement with the Arab League. That agreement called for an end to violence, impartial monitoring, no outside interference, humanitarian access for all Syrians and support for Annan’s goal of dialogue between the government and the opposition.
China did not send its foreign minister to the meeting, but Beijing’s U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong made clear that his country has reservations about council action against Damascus.
"China is against any interference in internal affairs in the name of humanitarianism," he said.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe urged Moscow and China to stop preventing the council from taking action on Syria.
"It is unacceptable that our council should be prevented from shouldering these responsibilities (to the Syrian people)," Juppe told the council. "I call upon China and Russia to take their responsibilities."
He also dismissed the idea that France or any other council member was considering arming Syria’s rebels.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who was presiding over the council meeting in Britain’s capacity as Security Council president this month, said the council had "failed in its responsibilities towards the Syrian people."
