US raises prospect of intervention in Syria
America has raised the possibility of intervening in Syria without United Nations approval and accused Russia of pushing the country into civil war.
Hillary Clinton said the absence of UN
support for action in Syria, due mainly to Russia's opposition, 'makes
it harder' to respond to the crisis Photo: AFP/GETTY
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of
state, bluntly criticised Russia's continued backing for President
Bashar al-Assad's regime yesterday. This support was illustrated last
night by the disclosure that a Russian cargo ship carrying weapons had
docked in Syria last Saturday, one day after the massacre in Houla which
claimed at least 108 civilian lives.
Addressing students in Denmark, Mrs Clinton urged Russia to use its influence on Mr Assad to curb the fighting.
"The
Syrians are not going to listen to us. They will listen - maybe - to
the Russians, so we have to keep pushing them," she said.
Russian
officials, added Mrs Clinton, "are telling me they don't want to see a
civil war. I have been telling them their policy is going help to
contribute to a civil war." Western governments believe that diplomatic
cover afforded by the Kremlin has emboldened Mr Assad and encouraged him
to resist pressure to negotiate a settlement of the conflict.
Earlier,
Susan Rice, the American ambassador to the UN, said that Russia's
veto-wielding membership of the Security Council would not necessarily
prevent international action. If the violence worsened and the peace
plan proposed by Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, made no
progress, some countries would consider whether to bypass Russian and
Chinese opposition in the UN.
"Members of this Council and members of the
international community are (then) left with the option only of having
to consider whether they're prepared to take actions outside of the
Annan plan and the authority of this Council," said Ms Rice.Leaders of the Free Syrian Army, the rebel movement, issued a statement giving the regime until Friday (today) to obey the Annan plan, or they would formally abandon a ceasefire.
But Mrs Clinton noted the obstacles to any Western military intervention, starting with the probable Russian and Chinese vetoes that would prevent any action from having UN support. "We're nowhere near putting together any type of coalition other than to alleviate the suffering," she said. "We have very strong opposition from Russia and China - but it's primarily from Russia - and that makes it harder to put together an international coalition."
There are growing fears that Syria risks becoming a "failed state" comparable to Iraq during the worst days of its conflict, when different sects battled for power and militant Islamist groups allied to al-Qaeda also rose to the surface.
Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary general, spelled out the dangers, saying: "The massacre of civilians of the sort seen last weekend could plunge Syria into a catastrophic civil war - a civil war from which the country would never recover."
One day after the killings in Houla, a Russian cargo vessel, the Professor Katsman, landed in the Syrian port of Tartous carrying weapons for the regime. Russian arms sales to Mr Assad totalled about $1 billion last year and outstanding contracts are believed to be worth three or four times that total. The Syrian army relies on Russia for most of its tanks, armoured vehicles and heavy weapons.
The UN has deployed 290 observers in the country to monitor a ceasefire called for by the Annan plan. But Mr Ban added: "Let me state plainly: the UN did not deploy in Syria just to bear witness to the slaughter of innocents. We are not there to play the role of passive observer to unspeakable atrocities." Some countries want more observers to be sent, noting that violence falls wherever they are deployed.
However, there is a real risk of Syria's fighting spreading into neighbouring Lebanon. Hizbollah, the Shia extremist group based in south Lebanon, is believed to have brought weapons into the country from Syria, including medium range missiles. The arrival of these arms in Lebanon will raise tensions between Sunni and Shia, already inflamed by the crisis in Syria.
In London, David Cameron convened a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the situation. Britain will consider pushing for "further sanctions", but the possibility of military action was not on the table.
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