Associated Press Online
March 8, 2012 Thursday 3:45 PM GMT
UK: Russia, China paying price over Syria stance
By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press
LONDON
Russia and China are paying “a diplomatic price” across the Arab world
for their opposition to international action against Syria’s ruling
regime, Britain’s foreign secretary said Thursday.
As William Hague pressed the two nations to drop their objections, the
presidents of Turkey and Tunisia also urged a diplomatic resolution to
the Syrian government’s bloody crackdown and said they remain opposed
to outside military intervention in the country.
China and Russia have vetoed two United Nations resolutions condemning
the Syrian regime and calling for President Bashar Assad to step down.
Diplomats hope the nations may agree to a new U.N. Security Council
resolution focused on the need for humanitarian aid and an end to
violence but which does not address Assad’s future.
“While we should not be starry-eyed about this, it’s certainly true
that China and Russia are paying a diplomatic price for the position
that they have taken,” Hague told Parliament’s Foreign Affairs select
committee. “Throughout the Arab world they are paying that price
particularly in the opinion of the people of many Arab nations.”
Hague said nations at the U.N. must continue to work on agreeing to “a
meaningful resolution” that supports the work of the joint U.N.-Arab
League envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan.
“If our view is correct that the Assad regime cannot recover its
credibility internationally, or internally after spilling so much
blood and that one way or another it is doomed, then it is in the
national interest of Russia and China to support a political
transition at some stage,” Hague said.
The U.N. says more than 7,500 people have been killed since Syria’s
uprising began a year ago. Activists put the death toll at more than
8,000.
At talks in Tunis, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said that regional
powers should try and find a solution to the crisis. “We do not find
it right for outside forces to come to the region,” he said as he held
talks with Tunisia’s President Moncef Marzouki. “It is open to
exploitation.”
Gul did not elaborate on his remark, but said that “it would be better
that the region shoulders this on its own.”
He said a meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria group would take
place in Istanbul with “one week or two” and that he hoped Russia and
China, who shunned a previous conference in Tunisia, would attend.
“I hope everyone comes and participates in the meeting in Istanbul,” he said.
However, Russia’s foreign ministry on Tuesday dismissed hopes for a
shift in its stance as “wishful thinking,” while China said Thursday
its special envoy had held talks with Syria’s foreign minister and
opposition figures during a visit to the country. Li Huaxin reiterated
Beijing’s belief that the Syrian crisis could be settled peacefully
through dialogue.
Gul confirmed that France would be invited to the conference, despite
a diplomatic dispute with Turkey over mass killings of Armenians at
the end of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey, which shares a long border with Syria, and France, Syria’s
former colonial ruler, have been calling for stronger world action on
Syria. But Turkish-French relations have stalled over a French law
making it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians in 1915
constituted genocide.
In London, Hague told legislators that Britain may be prepared to
offer equipment to Syria’s opposition, but said there were concerns
over whether it would be possible to deliver items into Syria and
fears they could end up in the hand of extremists.
“We can help and we will continue to offer help to peaceful Syrian
opposition groups,” he said. “I don’t rule out giving more nonlethal
help.”
Hague acknowledged it could be possible to replicate the aid that had
been offered to rebel forces in Libya, where Britain supplied body
armor and communications equipment.
However, he said worries that al-Qaida-linked extremists were
operating inside Syria could pose a challenge. “That is a
consideration in trying to provide practical assistance,” he said.
He has already ruled out offering weapons to Syria’s opposition,
In talks with Gul, Marzouki said that “arming insurgents and foreign
intervention would only complicate the situation.”
In Athens, Greece’s Foreign Minister Stavros Dimas met with Syrian
opposition representatives to discuss a peaceful end to the country’s
yearlong uprising. A representative from the Coordination Committee
for Democratic Change, one of the Syria’s two main opposition groups,
said his group is committed to a nonviolent transition to democracy.
Associated Press writers Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Turkey, and Angela
Charlton in Paris contributed to this report
From: Baghdasarian