Paris Hopes for Tuesday Vote on U.N. Syria Statement
France on Monday proposed a U.N. Security Council statement backing U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's mission to end bloodshed in Syria and ease the international deadlock over the crisis.
With Annan and other U.N. efforts to halt the killing and gain humanitarian access already meeting resistance from President Bashar al-Assad, envoys said it had become urgent to send a "strong message" to the Damascus government.
First talks on the council's presidential statement will be held on Tuesday and French ambassador Gerard Araud said he hoped it would be adopted by the end of the day.
In a new sign of the diplomatic urgency over Syria, the Security Council is also negotiating a press statement, proposed by Russia, condemning the bomb attacks in Damascus and Aleppo at the weekend.
Russia and China have twice used their powers as permanent members of the 15-nation council to veto resolutions on Syria. Araud said the presidential statement is "very limited" to Annan's mission in a bid to reduce any potential opposition.
"It's really the least controversial text that we could enter," Araud told reporters after presenting the proposal to the other 14 members of the council.
"It is such a sensitive topic that countries need instructions from their capitals," he added. The French envoy said the council had to act "quickly" and it would be "meaningless" to resume talks on a full resolution on the topic which could take two weeks to negotiate.
A presidential statement has less weight than a resolution but is adopted by consensus and is generally negotiated faster.
"No one suggested that there was any particular sticking point but most people were seeing it for the first time this morning," added Britain's U.N. ambassador Mark Lyall Grant.
Annan appealed for united Security Council for his mission when he briefed envoys on Friday on the six-point plan he put to Assad during talks in Damascus.
The presidential statement refers to the plan but not the individual points which include a halt to the violence, humanitarian access, the release of detainees held over the past year and withdrawal of security forces from protest cities.
Syria has already sent a response to Annan on his proposals.
Diplomats said the Assad government had sent one response which insisted Annan only deal with the Syrian foreign ministry.
As a condition for ceasefire talks, the government insisted that the opposition had to lay down its arms, diplomats said. Neighboring countries had to guarantee they would not send weapons to Syrian groups or give political or financial support to opposition groups.
Annan had to get Russia to put pressure on the Damascus regime to send a new response to Annan, diplomats told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.
A team of five experts sent by Annan is in Damascus to discuss efforts to set up a monitoring mission and a ceasefire.
The political, peacekeeping and mediation experts "will be staying for as long as they are making progress (on reaching) agreement on practical steps to implement Mr. Annan's proposals" said Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi.
Fawzi would not disclose the team's precise plans and said Annan's next visit to Syria would "depend largely on progress being made by the Syrians in working with the mission."
Annan will be going to other capitals however, he added.
U.N. and Organization of Islamic Cooperation experts are also in Syria, observing a government-led assessment of humanitarian conditions in protest cities such as Homs and Daraa.
Source: Agence France Presse
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