Arab states will not stop their efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis even though their bid to secure UN backing was blocked by Russia and China, the Arab League’s secretary-general has said.
Nabil Elaraby also said the Russian and Chinese veto “does not negate that there is clear international support for the resolutions of the Arab League”, which had sought UN Security Council backing for a decision that called for President Bashar al-Assad to step aside so talks with the opposition could start. Elaraby said this in a statement obtained by Reuters news agency on Sunday.
As proponents of the Arab League plan are now searching for an alternative to address the crisis, Syria’s opposition also appealed for international backing.
“The veto is not the end of the world. The revolution will continue and it will be victorious, God willing,” Radwan Ziadeh, a prominent figure on the Syrian National Council, the main opposition umbrella group, wrote on his Facebook page.
After 13 of the Security Council’s 15 members backed the resolution, he said, countries backing Syria’s opposition should form an “international coalition … whose aim will be to lead international moves to support the revolution through political and economic aid.”
Ziadeh said he expected French, US and Arab support for a coalition.
Military option
In an interview with Al-Arabiya TV on Saturday after the UN, the head of the Syrian National Council Burhan Ghalioun also spoke of an international coalition but sought to avoid talk of military support for the rebel fighters. However, he did say such support was possible “if necessary” to “protect the Syrian people.”
Yet the commander of the FSA said they have no choice now but to fight to free the country of Assad’s regime after Russia and China vetoed the UN resolution.
Colonel Riad al-Asaad, commander of the FSA, said that “there is no other road” except military action by his fighters to topple Assad.
Speaking on Sunday by telephone from Turkey, al-Asaad said Russia and China’s veto of the measure was a “strike against the Syrian people,” not just the opposition.
Arab nations and other backers of the Security Council resolution also expressed their anger and frustration at the double veto during an international security conference in the German city of Munich.
‘License to kill’
Qatar’s minister for international co-operation, Khaled al-Attiyah, said the vetoes sent “a very bad signal to Assad that there (is a) license to kill.”
Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali urged other Arab nations to follow the step his country took on Saturday and expel Syrian ambassadors and end recognition of Assad.
“The very least that we can do is to cut our relations to the Syrian regime,” Jebali said.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr signaled frustration that the UN resolution was vetoed following “one of the few instances when the Arab League really came forward and put forward a full plan for a settlement.”
He said Arab League foreign ministers would meet in Cairo next Saturday to decide on a next step.
The Syrian government on Sunday said the UN vetoes as a victory, saying the world must now support the regime’s program for resolving the crisis.
The state-run Tishreen daily said the veto was an incentive for Damascus to continue with announced political reforms, which include drafting a new constitution, allowing the formation of new political parties and holding parliamentary elections.
It said the international community should now back moves for a dialogue between the government and opposition.
At the same time, it vowed that the government would simultaneously continue its crackdown, saying it would “restore what the Syrians enjoyed for decades and what they are demanding today which is stability and security and confronting all forms of terrorism.”
‘Unbalanced signal’
Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the UN, said the veto of the new resolution was necessary because it “sent an unbalanced signal to the Syrian parties”.
Churkin said Western nations behind the resolution were “calling for regime change, pushing the opposition towards power”.
Li Baodong, the Chinese representative to the UN, said further consultation was needed before the council denounced the Syrian government.
“To push through a vote when parties are still seriously divided over the issue will not help maintain the unity and authority of the Security Council, or help resolve the issue,” Li said.
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