Powers discuss draft resolution urging end to crackdown; Baba Amr residents tell of destruction; Amos, Annan due in Syria.
By REUTERSUnited Nations Security Council 311 (R)(photo credit: Mike Segar / Reuters)
US President Barack Obama said it was only a matter of time before Syrian President Bashar Assad left office, but squarely opposed a call to launch US military action to force him out.Obama said what was happening in Syria was "heartbreaking and outrageous", and witness accounts of the devastation after government troops bombarded the rebel stronghold of Baba Amr into submission have given attempts to reach a diplomatic solution renewed urgency."The atrocities we saw were beyond our imagination," said one former resident, speaking from a secret location.UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos and the joint UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan are due to visit Syria this week to see first hand the effects of a conflict that the United Nations says has killed more than 7,500 civilians.World powers met behind closed doors at the United Nations on Tuesday to discuss a US-drafted resolution urging an end to the crackdown on the revolt against Assad and unhindered humanitarian access.But despite the chorus of outrage, Western leaders have ruled out a Libya-style military intervention in Syria, fearing it could trigger wider conflict in the Middle East.The White House said Obama was committed to diplomatic efforts to end the violence, saying Washington wanted to isolate Assad, cut off his sources of revenue and encourage unity among his opponents."Ultimately this dictator will fall," Obama said at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday, adding that it was not a question of if, but when Assad would be forced out.But he opposed a call by US Senator John McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, for the United States to lead an international effort to protect population centers in Syria with air strikes on Assad's forces."For us to take military action unilaterally, as some have suggested, or to think that somehow there is some simple solution, I think is a mistake," he said.Click for full JPost coverageNew moves at the United NationsCalls for action to protect civilians have grown louder as the Alawite-led security apparatus has cracked down on the uprising that has its roots in the majority Sunni community and which has raised the prospect of a civil war.Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a former ally of Assad, said the violence in Syria had "started to resemble an inhumane savagery in recent days", calling for a humanitarian corridor to be established in Syria to help civilians.The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Morocco held what US Ambassador Susan Rice called "preliminary discussions ... about whether there is any possibility of reaching agreement" on a US-drafted resolution.The draft, obtained by Reuters, demands "unhindered humanitarian access" and "condemns the continued widespread, systematic, and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities and demands that the Syrian government immediately put an end to such violations".Several Western diplomats expressed disappointment with the draft, saying it fell far short of an appropriately stinging condemnation of the Syrian government.It remains unclear whether the draft, which follows two proposed condemnations of Damascus that Russia and China vetoed, has any chance of success in the 15-nation council, which has been deadlocked over Syria for almost a year.A Chinese diplomat arrived in Damascus on Tuesday to outline Beijing's peace plan.UN ambassadors from the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia, along with the sole Arab state on the 15-nation Security Council, Morocco, avoided detailed comments when they left a 1-1/2 hour meeting on the draft on Tuesday.Chinese Ambassador Li Baodong told reporters: "We're still working on that."
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