Protesters Hit Back At Missions Across The World
Beirut/Munich: Syrian forces killed more than 200 people in an assault on Homs, activists said, the bloodiest day of the 11-month uprising giving sudden urgency to a push for a UN resolution calling for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to cede power.
The Arab League, Europe and US leaned hard on Assad’s veto-wielding ally Russia to let Security Council pass a resolution on Saturday backing an Arab call for Assad to transfer powers to a deputy. Moscow, which had initially claimed they would veto the resolution if they found it one sided, said the resolution was not “hopeless”, but it needed to be adjusted to avoid “taking sides in a civil war”.
French foreign minister Alain Juppe called the killings a “massacre” and a “crime against humanity”. Refering to Moscow, he said any country that blocked UN action would bear a “heavy responsibility in history”.
After “vigorous” talks between secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, Moscow announced that Lavrov would fly to Syria in three days to meet Assad. Death tolls cited by activists and opposition groups ranged from 237 to 260. Syria denied shelling the area and said Internet video of corpses was staged.
Tunisia announced it was expelling the Syrian ambassador and revoking recognition of Assad’s government. The head of a committee of parliamentarians from Arab states said Arab countries should expel Syrian ambassadors. As news of the violence spread, Syrians stormed their country’s embassies in Cairo, London and Kuwait, and rallied outside missions in Germany, Greece and US. REUTERS
Assad murdered civilians: Obama
President Barack Obama on Saturday accused the government of Syrian president Assad of murdering civilians in an “unspeakable assault” in Homs, and demanded that Assad step down.
No comments:
Post a Comment