The battle over Syria moved to the United Nations on Tuesday as western powers and much of the Arab world confronted Russia and its allies in the Security Council over their refusal to condemn the Syrian government for its violent suppression of popular protests.
As top diplomats gathered in the Security Council chamber for the showdown, the steady drumbeat of violence continued without pause in Syria, where government forces used heavy weapons and tanks to push rebels back from strongholds near Damascus.
At the United Nations, the two sides skirmished over a draft Security Council resolution proposed by Morocco that calls for president Bashar Assad of Syria to leave power as the first step of a transition toward democracy. But behind all the arguments lurked the ghost of Libya, with Russia determined to block any resolution that might be construed as a license for regime change.
False analogy
“The Syrian government failed to make any serious effort to cooperate with us,” Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, told the Security Council about Arab League efforts to mediate the dispute. “The government killing machine continues effectively unabated.” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, joined by the foreign ministers of Britain, France and several other countries, argued that Libya was a ‘false analogy.’ The plan for a gradual democratic transition “represents the best efforts of Syria’s neighbours to chart a way forward,” she said.
The proposed resolution, which most likely would not be voted on before Friday, called for Assad to cede power to his vice president, who would help form a unity government that would prepare for elections. It is unlikely that Assad would heed the demands to step down, even if the resolution made it through the Council.
Fundamentally, the argument over Syria reflects a deeper divide between those who would use the Security Council to confront nations over how their governments treat civilians, versus those who feel that it has no role whatsoever in settling domestic disputes.
Russia, backed discreetly by China and India, rejects the idea that the world organisation can interfere in the domestic politics of any country to force a leadership change. They all feel that they were duped into supporting a no-fly zone over Libya, which was promoted as a means to protect civilians last March. Instead, they said, Nato used it as a licence to help overthrow the Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi. The Russian envoy, Vitaly Churkin, adopted a ‘where will it all end’ argument on Tuesday. “Once you start, it is difficult to stop,” he said, adding that pretty soon the Council would start pronouncing “what king needs to resign, or what prime minister needs to step down.” To a certain extent, the Arab League and much of the world were ready to dump the eccentric Gadhafi because he had made many enemies. Assad, despite hostile relations with some neighbours and the west, continues to have a strong ally in Russia, yet analysts described Moscow as preoccupied with leadership change.
There is no western nor Arab League support for the kind of international military intervention that occurred in Libya, because of concerns that an implosion of Syria could drag neighbours like Israel, Iraq and Lebanon into a wider conflagration. The goal is to try to stanch the conflict without sparking a sectarian civil war.In the longest and most emotional speech of the day, Ambassador Bashar Jaafari of Syria evoked the famous Arab poet Nizar Qabbani and the long Arab struggle against colonialism to insult Qatar and others leading the effort to support political change in Syria.
With Syria, other calculations also come into play. Vladimir Putin, who seeks to return to the Russian presidency in elections this March, wants to portray Russia as regaining its superpower influence. Russia’s long ties to Syria generate billions of dollars in weapons sales, plus the relationship gives Moscow the entree it needs to the table for Middle East peace talks.
In the west, the interest in pressuring Assad to leave is partly rooted in the desire to weaken the position of Syria’s ally, Iran, in the region, as well as that of Hezbollah, which continues to back the Damascus government. The haggling over the wording is expected to commence in earnest again on Wednesday. Russia and China vetoed a similar resolution last October.