Thursday, Apr 19, 2012


 
   By Joe Lauria and Inti Landauro 
   Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Leaders of the U.S., France and their allies called Thursday for tougher actions against President Bashar al-Assad's regime if it fails to abide by a United Nations plan to halt violence in the country, characterizing Kofi Annan's cease-fire plan as a last chance for peace in Syria.

"Even though fragile, the Annan plan represents a last hope, and we are committed to do everything to make it successful," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Thursday in Paris during a summit of the Friends of Syrian People. "If that's not the case, we will make the U.N. Security Council and the international community examine other options to end this tragedy."

(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal website, WSJ.com.)

Juppe and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed stiff penalties if President Assad's regime doesn't comply with the plan in full, including stepping up sanctions and trying to convince countries providing aid and weapons to the regime to stop.

"We need to start moving very vigorously in the Security Council for a Chapter Seven sanctions resolution, including travel, financial sanctions, an arms embargo," Clinton said in a statement.

She also noted that Turkey, following cross-border shelling from Syria a week ago, is considering invoking a North Atlantic Treaty Organization article that would trigger consultations when a member's territorial integrity or security is threatened.

In Washington, U.S. military leaders testifying before Congress said the U.S. military is ready to act to stop the violence in Syria if necessary. But they expressed a clear reluctance to do so, insisting that diplomacy remains the best option.

"I think it's clear that the only way that the United States would get involved militarily is if there's a consensus in the international community to try to do something along those lines," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the House Armed Services Committee, The Associated Press reported.

The tough words came as U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appeared to be using a cooling in Syria's violence as his opening to station hundreds of unarmed observers into the country. "Without underestimating the serious challenges ahead, an opportunity for progress may now exist, on which we need to build," Ban wrote in a letter to the council late Wednesday in New York.

Ban recommended that the Security Council authorize 300 U.N. cease-fire observers to Syria for three months, even though he said Damascus remains in violation of the U.N.'s peace plan and a cease-fire that was to have gone into effect last week.

The U.N. Security Council, which earlier approved an advance team of eight observers who are already in the country, could decide by as soon as next week to deploy the larger contingent.

The adoption of such a mission appeared far from certain, however, as the U.S. cast doubt on the Syrian government's willingness to give monitors unhindered access to the areas of worst violence. The international community and the Syrian government also remained at odds on several basic ground rules for the mission, including the number of observers and their nationality.

The advance team is in the country to monitor a cease-fire that was to have gone into effect last week, to staunch 13 months of protests and reprisals in Syria that by various estimates have left more than 9,000 to 11,000 people dead.

The U.N. and Damascus reached a preliminary protocol Thursday on the ground rules for sending a larger group. The Security Council has outlined conditions including allowing the unarmed observers freedom of movement and the ability to interview Syrians without interference.

But several basic points of contention appear to remain between Syria and the international community on the U.N. monitor plan.

Syria said Wednesday it would agree to accept 250 observers, from what it considers friendly countries, including Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

Ban, by contrast, has proposed a force of 300 people. France is proposing strengthening the observer mission further, sending 300 to 400.

"I am sure that if there are several hundreds of observers able to move freely on the ground and the country is open to the international press then the situation will change drastically," said Juppe.

Ban, in comments to reporters Thursday, also said there was no agreement on whether the observers could use aircraft to patrol the vast stretches of the country where violent clashes have occurred between the armed opposition and the government.

"We need effective means of mobility and the Syrian government should be responsible for providing this," Ban said. "If not, we are willing to provide our own means of [air] transport."

He said discussions on this continue though the Syrian ambassador assured him Thursday that Damascus would provide the observer with helicopters and planes.

Ban also said the composition of the deployment was ultimately up to the U.N. "We are still discussing it," he told reporters in New York. "There should be no preconditions for nationalities."

Inside Syria, activists said Thursday that regime forces had taken control of the southern town of Busra al-Harir, which regime forces have been attacking for about a month, the AP cited the Local Coordination Committees activist group as saying.

Members of the U.N.'s advance team of observers visited the southern province of Deraa, the AP reported. It cited an activist as saying that anti-regime protesters gathered around the observers in the village of Hirak chanting anti-regime slogans. When the observers left, security forces began shooting to disperse demonstrators, wounding at least three, the activist told the AP.

The U.S. pressed for swift response from Damascus, demanding that the Syrian government allow the U.N.'s advance team of observers to immediately visit Homs, the scene of the uprising's worst violence.

"The advance team must be allowed to go to places like Homs today," Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., told reporters. "The government must stop its shelling and pull back. The government could do all these things today."

Rice characterized the demand for a Homs visit as a test of the Syrian government's commitment to the U.N. monitor's mission and the ceasefire itself. Such a position raises the possibility that the U.S. could block a Security Council adoption on a full monitoring team should Syria fail to follow through. Rice didn't say the U.S. would do so, however, saying only that it is still studying its options.

"The council can authorize the full mission tomorrow," she said. "But if they can't visit the hotspots...they won't be effective."

Russia, however, would vote in favor of sending the 300 monitors, despite the outstanding issues, Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the U.N., told reporters.

Churkin also said that Syrian Prime Minister Adel Safar had been appointed as the negotiator with the opposition for a political settlement, a key part of Kofi Anna's six-point peace plan.

In Paris, Juppe blamed Assad and his regime for the failure of the U.N. plan so far, and said the Syrian opposition has met its part of the plan.

"The [opposition] groups on the ground, whose coordination is made very difficult by repression, have respected the ceasefire despite provocations from the Syrian authorities," he said. "We are running out of time. Observers must be quickly deployed and able to act with no restrictions."

-By Joe Lauria and Inti Landauro, The Wall Street Journal; newseditor@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

19-04-12 1925GMT