U.S. Vows to Dry Up Funding, Arms Shipments to Syria Regime
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed Sunday to bolster existing sanctions against the Syrian regime and seek further ones to block funding and arms shipments to Damascus.
Seeking other ways to turn the screws on Assad a day after Russia and China vetoed a resolution on Syria, Clinton said Washington will also work with Syria's friends worldwide to support the peaceful aims of the opposition.
"What happened yesterday at the United Nations was a travesty," Clinton said during a visit to Bulgaria following her failed talks in Munich with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"Those countries that refused to support the Arab League plan bear full responsibility for protecting the brutal regime in Damascus," a forceful Clinton told a press conference with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.
She said the 13 of the 15 Security Council members who backed the resolution sought to start a "process for political engagement that would lead to a transition" to a new democratic Syria.
"We feared that failure to do so would actually increase the chances for a brutal civil war," she said, recalling that Syrians were beginning to arm themselves against the crackdown.
"Faced with a neutered Security Council we have to redouble our efforts outside of the U.N. with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people's right to have a better future," Clinton said.
"We have to increase diplomatic pressure on the Assad regime and work to convince those people around President Assad that he must go and that there has to be a recognition of that and a new start," she said.
"We will work to seek regional and national sanctions against Syria and strengthen the ones we have," she said.
"They will be implemented to the fullest to dry up the sources of funding and the arms shipments that are keeping the regime's war machine going," she said.
"We will work to expose those who are still funding the regime and sending it weapons that are used against defenseless Syrians including women and children," she said.
The veto came hours after the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) reported a "massacre" overnight Friday in the central flashpoint city of Homs.
Activists and residents said more than 230 civilian, including women and children, were killed during an assault by regime forces.
"We will work with the friends of a democratic Syria around the world to support the opposition's peaceful political plans for change," Clinton said without naming them.
They are likely to include Turkey, Arab countries and Western European nations.
On Sunday, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said the bloc would press on with mediation efforts to find a political solution in Syria to avoid foreign intervention in the country.
05 February 2012, 18:38
00
The end result, though, is the same: the Arabs of Israel, the US and the West got the long-deserved shaft. From now on, all they can do is weep and scream of pain.
05 February 2012, 18:47
20
the crisis in syria is internationalized so.....very long.
the sunni and alawis will be exhausted to the bone...no other comments.
05 February 2012, 18:56
10
Better late than never. When Syria was pounding Lebanese cities and towns with artillary in 1978 (Ashrafieh) and 1981 (Zahle), there was not the same kind of US concern. In fact, there was none.
But let us not curse the Americans for finally seeing the light. It would be similar to the Aounists who cannot forget that Jumblatt and Hariri were once with the Syrians and so refused to acknowledge them in the Lebanese nationalist camp, even as the Aounists joined the hegemonic Syrian camp.
05 February 2012, 19:34
13
YOu know we and every arab in the middle east is so good of blaming the US and isreal for everything when something goes bad or when we need the US to do something to help us. empty promises, they should intervene, they this they that, we need to start retlying on ourselves to help us. where are our religious and community leaders to call on the syrian army to defy the orders of Assad, they cannot be all alawiites, there are christians, sunnis, druze and others that should immediatly defect. but we all know how cawordly are the arab armies, espacially the biggest is the Syrian army, we all remember how they all sold their uniforms when Isreal invaded Lebanon. but they dont have to fight, they simply need to just leave, run and hide, or just turn your guns on your other cowardly soldiers than kill innocent kids
05 February 2012, 20:13
10
@Cookie_kid: I agree the war will be long after the last shipment from Russia to the terrorist regime, BUT you have been doomed by 13 members against 2. So it is a matter of time before the two agree with the 13. end of story and get with the program with your lost Identity.
05 February 2012, 21:47
10
@Flamethrower "They will be implemented to the fullest to dry up the sources of funding and the arms shipments that are keeping the regime's war machine going"
read the article before you comment.
@Mfawaz i agree that what was done in bahrain is shameful however you cannot compare the atrocities that are being committed in syria with what happened in bahrain.
that being said the americans are total hypocrites especially since they veto all the UNSC resolutions against israel...
06 February 2012, 00:32
01
When Israel was commiting massacres in Lebanon and Palestine, the West were supporting Israel. Israeli aggression can not exist without the support of the blood thirsty hypocritical West. ALL ARAB REGIMES, not just the SYRIAN regime must be overthrown ESPECIALLY those that are puppet TYRANTS of America/Israel. This is the third time I have written my comments in the last 24 hours and you refused to print it. If you censure some comments for political reasons, please let me know so I and many Lebanese leftist friends will no longer read ANY of your articles!
06 February 2012, 03:14
02
the filthy zionist information war department has a cunning plan how to bring down assad regime. they say us should drop heavy weapons to salafi groups in syria.
but they forget that retarded people, like salafis, don't know how to use heavy weapons.
also, they are hoping that "americans have seen the light".
lol hillarious
06 February 2012, 03:32
10
@Habal: When the zionist planes destroyed the infrastructure in 2006 what did the rat say on TV? I will remind you: Had we known the amount of causalities and destruction done by the kidnapping we would not have done it.
You are forcing with your one way street mindset (Iran/Syria's way or the highway-lying reforms) for the others in the Arab world and Western nations to jointly destroy the infrastructure in Syria, then you call them zionist. For years we say disarm or join the Army and keep the weapons organized in the Army ranks, you refuse and Israel is your enemy only but not the rest of people who lost lives during your 2006 war.
06 February 2012, 07:56
21
After Assads downfall will lebanon be able to escape from chronic corruption and degradation.
