You're reading: Russia says no to Syria sanctions as UN talks begin

UNITED NATIONS - Russia said on July 12 it would not agree to a threat of sanctions to end the 16-month conflict in Syria as a deeply divided U.N. Security Council began negotiations on a resolution to extend a U.N. monitoring mission there.

The 15-member council must decide the future of the U.N.
mission, known as UNSMIS, before July 20, when its 90-day
mandate expires. UNSMIS was deployed to monitor a failed truce
as part of international envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.

Russia has proposed extending the mission for 90 days, but
Britain, the United States, France and Germany countered with a
draft resolution to extend the mission for just 45 days and
place Annan’s peace plan under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Chapter 7 allows the council to authorize actions ranging
from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention.
U.S. officials have said they are talking about sanctions on
Syria, not military intervention.

The Security Council is currently due to vote next
Wednesday.

President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have killed more than
15,000 people since a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters
began in March 2011, some Western leaders say. Damascus says
rebels have killed several thousand of its security forces.

“We are definitely against Chapter 7. Anything can be
negotiated, but we do not negotiate this, this is a red line,”
Russian Deputy U.N. Ambassador Alexander Pankin told reporters.

The opening stance by Russia, a key ally of Syria, was no
surprise to Western diplomats. Russia and China previously
vetoed U.N. resolutions designed to pressure Assad.

“They would say that at this stage wouldn’t they,” said
Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant. “It’s clear that
there’s very strong support for the text.”

Negotiations are unlikely to move quickly. After the first
round of talks on Thursday, French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud
said that negotiators started 10 miles apart, and “now we are 10
miles less 5 centimeters.”

‘TIME TO ACT’

The Western-backed draft resolution in particular threatens
the Syrian government with sanctions if it does not stop using
heavy weapons and withdraw its troops from towns and cities
within 10 days of the adoption of the resolution.

A Western diplomat, who did not want to be named, said the
resolution had been drafted with the strongest possible language
and action because “it’s long past time for the council to act.”

“It’s frankly outrageous that the council would leave
unarmed observers twisting in the wind and not use all the tools
they have at their disposal,” he said. “We’re now at the point
where 100 or more people are dying a day.”

Opposition activists said more than 200 people, mostly
civilians, were massacred in a Syrian army and militia onslaught
in a village in the rebellious province of Hama on Thursday.

Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja’afari said
on Wednesday that countries raising the threat of sanctions were
not helping efforts to end the conflict and maintained that
Damascus was committed to Annan’s peace plan.

Annan asked the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to make
clear to Syria’s government and opposition there would be “clear
consequences” for not complying with his plan to broker peace in
a conflict that has killed thousands.

“The United States is determined to support him (Annan)
because our experience of the last year makes it absolutely
clear that the Assad regime will not do anything without
additional further pressure,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said on Thursday during a visit to Cambodia.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has recommended a shift in the
emphasis of UNSMIS’ work from military observers – who suspended
most of their monitoring activities on June 16 because of
increased risk amid rising violence – to the civilian staff
focusing on a political solution and issues like human rights.