UNITED NATIONS, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Russia expressed strong opposition on Wednesday to a revised Western draft resolution condemning Syria for its crackdown on opposition protesters even though the new text drops calls for immediate sanctions.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he had circulated his own draft among the 14 other members of the Security Council, an updated version of a bland earlier Russian text that expressed concern over developments in Syria.
The Western draft, circulated on Tuesday by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal, aims at breaking a deadlock on the Security Council over Syria. It includes the threat of sanctions if the government of President Bashar al-Assad does not halt military operations against civilians.
But Churkin told reporters that the revisions still did not satisfy Moscow, a long-standing ally of Damascus, and the new version continued a "clear policy of regime change" in Syria.
"Let us face it. We have heard statements in various capitals describing who is legitimate and who is not and we believe that this line of thinking and speaking is encouraging violence in Syria," Churkin said.
He charged that the West was "basically encouraging the destructive elements of the opposition to continue their thing, and in our view it will have very dangerous, dramatic and tragic effects for Syria and for the region."
Churkin again cited the precedent of Libya, where a Security Council resolution calling for protection of civilians led to NATO bombing of leader Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, as an example of how "innocent formulations" can be abused.
Western countries say their approach to Syria is different from Libya and they have no plan to intervene militarily.
TARGETED MEASURES
The new Western draft, obtained by Reuters, says that if Damascus fails to heed the Security Council’s demands for an end to violence the council would "adopt targeted measures, including sanctions."
Last month the United States and the four European Union countries circulated a draft resolution that called for immediate sanctions against Assad, influential members of his family and close associates.
They said at the time that they wanted a vote as soon as possible, but that vote never came, amid opposition by veto-wielding council members Russia and China, as well as Brazil, India and South Africa.
The council is due to discuss the two new drafts later on Wednesday. Western diplomats have been hoping their latest text will be more palatable to those who opposed the earlier version, while still containing relatively tough language.
"We want to send a strong and unified message to ensure that the Assad regime does not remain deaf to the demands of the international community," a European diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Western diplomats played down Churkin’s comments. German Ambassador Peter Wittig said he believed the European draft was the basis for discussions, while Portugal’s Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral said he thought the two drafts could be reconciled.
"The council’s an ongoing negotiating process," he told reporters.
Churkin said his latest draft was a "much stronger version" of the previous one, but a text seen by Reuters still contained no teeth and continued to imply that both sides in Syria were behind the violence, a view rejected by the West.
The new Russian draft did, however, call on Syrian authorities to release "all political prisoners and detained peaceful demonstrators."
