UN Security Council on Syrian Crisis: Not About a Military Intervention - East Idaho News
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UN Security Council on Syrian Crisis: Not About a Military Intervention

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GETTY P 121310 HillaryClinton?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1328052046247Win McNamee/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — The theme of the speeches at Tuesday afternoon’s U.N. Security Council meeting was for the Assad regime to immediately end the violence against the Syrian civilians.  Foreign ministers speaking in support of the resolution also said that the resolution does not mean there will be a military intervention in Syria.  There will be no vote on this resolution as of Tuesday.

Hillary Clinton in her remarks said, “I know that some members here are concerned that we are headed toward another Libya.  That is a false analogy.  Syria is a unique situation that requires its own approach, tailored to the specific circumstances there.”

Qatari FM Hamad bin Jassim al Thani reaffirmed that the resolution represents the Arab League’s calls to be a facilitator towards a peaceful transition to democracy and that it was not about a military intervention.

Arab League Secretary General Nabil al Arabi said his organization had gone to the U.N. as a regional institution working to end the violence in Syria.  He said the League wants to avoid a foreign military intervention in Syria and wants the Syrian people to decide its own fate.

Bashar Ja’afari, Syria’s ambassador to the U.N., noted in his remarks that he found it strange that the Arab League had gone to the U.N. Security Council given what he said were the hundreds of vetoes the body has cast against Arab causes.  

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe labeled as a “myth” the statement that the resolution can be construed as authorizing force in Syria.  He stressed how it was the Arab League that hopes to bring a peaceful resolution to Syria.  
    
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague was the most forceful in his remarks, noting, “This is not the West telling Syria what to do,” but Arab nations seeking to resolve the Syrian crisis.  He said the resolution makes no call for military intervention, though it puts Syria on notice that future options could be considered if the violence doesn’t stop.

He said it was ironic that Syria’s Ja’afari had focused on the innocence of Syrian children growing up in an idealistic period during the 1950s and ’60s.  Hague pointed out it was ironic given that it was now the children of those grown children who are suffering in Syria.  Hague was critical of Ja’afari for seeking to place blame for Syria’s troubles on outside forces, saying it was the Assad regime that had started the violence and only they who could stop it.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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