Russia threatens to veto UN censure on Assad

Moscow is against military intervention in crisis-hit Syria .

Russia on Wednesday signaled that it would veto a draft UN resolution calling on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down unless it explicitly ruled out military intervention in the bloodshed touched off by protests against his rule.

Escalating violence in Syria has killed thousands of people and activists say Assad’s forces have stepped up operations against opposition strongholds across the country this week, from the Damascus suburbs to the cities of Hama and Homs and the border provinces of Deraa and Idlib.
Arab and Western states urged the UN Security Council on Tuesday to act swiftly on a resolution calling for Assad to delegate powers to his deputy and defuse the 11-month-old uprising against his family’s dynastic rule.

But Moscow’s envoy to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said there was no chance the Western-Arab draft text could be accepted unless it precisely rejected armed intervention.
The draft “is missing the most important thing: a clear clause ruling out the possibility that the resolution could be used to justify military intervention in Syrian affairs from outside. For this reason I see no chance this draft could be adopted,” said Chizhov, Russia’s envoy to the European Union.

Russia and China, both veto-wielding Security Council members, have resisted a Western push for a resolution condemning the Syrian government’s crackdown on unrest.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the resolution could not be used to authorise military intervention and his French counterpart Alain Juppe said such an idea was a myth.

But Chizhov’s remarks suggested Moscow, a close strategic ally and important arms supplier to Syria during its 42 years in the grip of the Assad family, would not accept such assurances.

Russia says the West exploited fuzzy wording in a March 2011 UN Security Council resolution on Libya to turn a mandate to protect civilians in the North African country’s popular uprising into a push for regime change — backed by Nato air strikes — that led to the overthrow of Muammar Gadhafi.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, who has led the Arab League’s efforts to tackle the Syrian crisis, attempted to allay Moscow and Beijing’s objections, saying it was trying to avoid a Libyan-style foreign role. “We are not calling for foreign intervention,” he said.