Ban Urges Russia to Step Up Pressure on Assad
U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon urged Russia to step up pressure on Syria's President Bashar Assad during talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a U.N. spokesman said Tuesday.
"He called on Russia to use its influence to ensure the full and immediate implementation" of the peace plan of U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, said U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky.
Russia, backed by China, has opposed a Western proposal for sanctions against Assad, and Ban spoke with Lavrov late Monday by telephone, a day after a similar conversation with China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
Ban and Lavrov "discussed the situation in Syria and the imperative need for the violence to stop at once," said Nesirky.
Annan was in Moscow on Tuesday to meet President Vladimir Putin and Ban "stressed the importance of these discussions, given the escalating and alarming situation in Syria," added the spokesman.
Without calling for sanctions, Ban and Annan have urged the Security Council to ensure there are "consequences" for failing to carry out the peace plan, which sets out steps to halt the conflict.
The U.N. Security Council is to vote Wednesday on a Western resolution that would threaten sanctions against Assad if he does not pull back heavy weapons from Syrian towns. Russia has vowed to block the resolution.
Activists said at least 35 people were killed across Syria on Tuesday, 16 of them civilians, adding to its toll of more than 17,000 people dead since the uprising against Assad began 16 months ago.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://naharnet.com/stories/en/46943 |