SYRIA: Chinese envoy Li Huaxin tells reporters in Damascus that Syria welcomes a six-point Chinese plan to promote a political solution to the year-long conflict

Record ID: 280399

  • Title: SYRIA: Chinese envoy Li Huaxin tells reporters in Damascus that Syria welcomes a six-point Chinese plan to promote a political solution to the year-long conflict
  • Date: 8th March 2012
  • Summary: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (MARCH 7, 2012) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LI HUAXING, CHINESE ENVOY, SAYING: "I was very pleased because his excellency, the minister, officially expressed welcoming this six-point vision from the Syrian side and an official statement will be issued by the Syrian side about this welcoming stance." VARIOUS OF LI HUAXING SHAKING HANDS WITH OFFICIALLY
  • Embargoed: 23rd March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic
  • Country: Syria
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVA4CY49Z3XE0MQDR4EVGAI300GY
  • Story Text: The Chinese Envoy to Syria, Li Huaxing, met with Syrian officially sanctioned opposition figures in Damascus on Wednesday (March 7) as well as the country's foreign minister Walid al-Mouallem.
    Ali Haidar, chief of the Syrian Social National Party, said his party rejects all foreign intervention but praised a Chinese plan that seeks to find a solution to the crisis in Syria.
    "Every foreign initiative that proposes visions of change and establishes methods for that change is rejected by the Syrian people whether they are opposition or not. We, in the opposition refuse any interference in this matter. The Chinese initiative is clear and says that only Syrians are concerned with establishing the change and its methods. These are the three main points. We agree to this initiative. We have feedback on only two points of this initiative," Haidar told reporters.
    Chinese envoy Li Huaxin who met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem earlier on Wednesday, told reporters in Damascus that Syria had welcomed a six-point Chinese plan to promote a political solution to the year-long conflict.
    The plan, unveiled on Sunday, called events in Syria "deeply worrying" and said: "We oppose anyone interfering in Syria's internal affairs under the pretext of 'humanitarian' issues."
    "I was very pleased because his excellency, the minister, officially expressed welcoming this six-point vision from the Syrian side and an official statement will be issued by the Syrian side about this welcoming stance," Li Huaxin told journalists.
    So far the world has found no way to halt a year of bloodshed since many Syrians rose up against President Bashar al-Assad in what has proved the longest and bloodiest of Arab revolts against entrenched rulers.
    At the United Nations, the five permanent Security Council members and Morocco met on Tuesday (March 6) to discuss a U.S.-drafted resolution urging an end to the Syrian government's crackdown on demonstrators, a text some Western envoys said was too weak.
    Russia and China, adamantly opposed to any Libya-style military intervention in Syria, have vetoed two previous draft measures that would have condemned Damascus and it is not clear whether the latest one stands any chance of success.
    According to a text seen by Reuters, the U.S. draft demands "unhindered humanitarian access" and "condemns the continued widespread, systematic, and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities".
    In another effort to stop the violence, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan plans his first visit to Damascus as joint envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League on Saturday.
    Diplomacy has yet to brake a conflict likely to have cost more than 10,000 lives: the United Nations says security forces has killed well over 7,500 people and Syria said in December that "terrorists" had killed more than 2,000 security personnel.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register