TURKEY: Syrian opposition grouping wants the U.N. Security Council to meet after a reported massacre by pro-government militiamen in a Syrian village

Record ID: 281022

  • Title: TURKEY: Syrian opposition grouping wants the U.N. Security Council to meet after a reported massacre by pro-government militiamen in a Syrian village
  • Date: 14th July 2012
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JULY 13, 2012) (REUTERS) SYRIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL PRESIDENT ABDULBASET SIEDA AND SPOKESMAN GEORGE SABRA SITTING DOWN FOR NEWS CONFERENCE REPORTERS SEATED SIEDA AT PODIUM NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS 5, REPORTERS SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PRESIDENT OF SYRIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL ABDULBASET SIEDA SAYING: "As for the working plan yesterday, during a meetin
  • Embargoed: 29th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEBEEN1R9R4FOUHO4RRZTUF7Y7
  • Story Text: Syrian National Council (SNC) leader Abdulbaset Sieda said on Friday (July 13) that the Syrian opposition is sending a delegate to New York to call on the United Nations Security Council to hold an urgent meeting in the wake of a reported massacre in the Syrian village of Tremseh.
    "As for the working plan yesterday, during a meeting of executive committee we decided to send a delegation to New York immediately to ask the Security Council for an exceptional meeting to issue a resolution on the chapter 7 to meet the expectations of Syrian people," Sieda told a news conference.
    Russia and China, both veto-wielding permanent U.N. Security Council members, have for months blocked attempts to increase the pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, endorsing his argument that he is defending his country against armed groups, backed by the West and by Sunni Arab Gulf monarchies, bent on toppling the government.
    "If we are faced with another veto by Russia we must look to Syria's friends, this group which represents some sort of international legitimacy, to take practical steps and actions and no longer rely on promises and words which are of no use to us because this regime is now a threat to the whole region, to the stability of the whole region," Sieda said.
    SNC spokesman George Sabra held Russia responsible for the latest violence after about 220 Syrians, mostly civilians, were reported to have been killed in Tremseh, a village bombarded by helicopter gunships and tanks and then stormed by militiamen who slaughtered some families, according to opposition sources on Friday.
    "We hold Russia responsible of the Tremseh massacre and the other massacres because now it is part of the problem and not part of the solution, and it is obvious that this Russian policy will now destroy the historical good relationship between the Syrian people and Russia," he said.
    Assad's strongest strategic ally, Russia, stuck by him on Thursday (July 12) with a clear warning to his Western and Arab enemies that it would not even consider a tough new UN resolution.
    Britain, the United States, France and Germany want to make compliance with a transition plan drafted by international envoy Kofi Annan enforceable under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.
    This would allow the Security Council to authorise actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention.
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