GERMANY: Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle condemns Russia, China veto on Syria sanctions and offers condolences to Bulgarian bus blast victims

Record ID: 281049

  • Title: GERMANY: Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle condemns Russia, China veto on Syria sanctions and offers condolences to Bulgarian bus blast victims
  • Date: 19th July 2012
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (JULY 19, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTRY BERLIN TV TOWER REFLECTED IN WINDOWS GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER, GUIDO WESTERWELLE ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER, GUIDO WESTERWELLE, SAYING: "The international community has today, one more chance to bring about a political solution and to
  • Embargoed: 3rd August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7FUJJF3NS6Q74D06EL5E238HP
  • Story Text: German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle on Thursday (July 19) called on the international community to act decisively on Syria and condemned the Russian-Chinese continued refusal to support sanctions against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a bid to halt the violence.
    Speaking on the day the U.N. Security Council is due to vote on a Western-backed resolution on Syria, Westerwelle said it was time to send a clear signal to end the violence.
    "The international community has today, one more chance to bring about a political solution and to prevent further bloodshed. We call on the international community, we call on all members of the Security Council to take action and to send out a clear signal against the violence, a clear signal against the oppression of the Assad regime," the German foreign minister said at a Berlin news conference.
    The 15-member Security Council needs to decide the future of a U.N. observer mission in Syria before its mandate expires on Friday (July 20). The council approved the mission's deployment to monitor a failed April 12 ceasefire under Annan's six-point peace plan.
    But the permanent five veto-wielding members of the Security Council -- the United States, Russia, Britain, China and France -- are divided over whether stronger action should be taken.
    Britain, the United States, and France, along with Germany, want the council to threaten Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and his government with sanctions in a bid to halt the violence, but Russia and China are against such a move.
    Russia, a key ally of Syria, has refused to engage in negotiations on the Western-backed resolution that would extend the U.N. observer mission in Syria for 45 days and place Annan's peace plan under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, diplomats say.
    Chapter 7 allows the council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention. U.S. officials, however, have said they are talking about sanctions on Syria, not military intervention.
    "People are dying and Moscow and Beijing are still hesitating. This is reprehensible in every way. I call on Russia and China emphatically to take on their political and human responsibility and to do their responsibility justice," Westerwelle said.
    "I think that Russia and China carry the key to a solution in their hands, both for a new political beginning and for a peaceful transition in Syria. Russia may say that they are not holding a protective hand over the Assad regime but the Assad regime interprets Russia's actions as were it a protective hand. And that is a very serious situation," Westerwelle said.
    On Wednesday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran for a bomb attack on a bus carrying Israeli tourists at a Bulgarian airport that killed six people and said his country would react 'powerfully.' After condemning the attacks and offering his condolences Westerwelle called for a measured response to the attacks until there was definite information on the attackers.
    "We have no independent information as to who the perpetrators were and what the reasons were for the attack in Bulgaria, this terrible attack. And that is why I do not want to speculate. What it is important is to react level-headedly, decisively, but in a level headed way so that the actual perpetrators and those behind the actions can be found, but I cannot speculate," Westerwelle said.
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