Hope remains for negotiated end to unrest in Syria

Analysts said the possibility of a political resolution to the Syrian crisis remains despite a divide in the United Nations, after Russia and China on Thursday, for the third time, vetoed a West-proposed draft resolution.

The two countries explained after the vote that the resolution was "biased" and "seriously problematic", as it threatened nonmilitary sanctions by quoting Chapter 7 of the UN Charter if the Syrian government were to fail to pull out troops and heavy weapons from populated areas within 10 days.

It also proposed to extend the UN Supervision Mission in Syria another 45 days after its scheduled expiration on Friday.

China's permanent representative to the UN, Li Baodong, said on Thursday the resolution "would not help resolve the Syrian issue, but instead would only derail the issue from the track of political settlement ... undermine regional peace and stability, and ultimately impair the interests of the people in Syria and the region at large."

He slammed the draft's sponsoring countries for being too rigid and arrogant to listen to other nations' reasonable concerns or revise the document, noting that the mediation of UN-Arab League joint envoy Kofi Annan is "an important and realistic way" to achieve a political solution to the Syrian issue.

Li Huaxin, former Chinese ambassador to Syria, said it is impossible for the Syrian government to accomplish these required goals in just 10 days, while the resolution, which runs contrary to the UN's spirit of nonintervention, may lead the country to war.

For the interests of the Syrian people and regional stability, China believes the future of Syria should be decided by its people, he said.

Fyodor Lukyanov, a Moscow-based analyst, told Russian media, "If there is no compromise, there will be no more resolutions, and the West, along with leading Arab states, will begin to more actively and more openly support the opposition and hope that Assad will be toppled by force."

Despite the failed resolution, European Union nations will enforce an arms embargo against Syria by boarding ships and aircraft carrying suspicious cargo to the war-torn nation, a senior EU official said on Friday.

The obligatory inspections will begin on EU territory or in its waters after being adopted by foreign ministers on Monday, the anonymous official told the Associated Press.

The veto also came one day after a bombing attack killed several senior Syrian security officials, including the defense minister and his deputy. The Financial Times said events on the ground could be entering "a decisive phase", and the attack "prompted speculation that the regime of Bashar al-Assad could be about to unravel".

Russia's ambassador to France said on Friday that Moscow believed Assad was ready to step down "in a civilized way". But the Syrian government immediately denied it.

Analysts said Assad's resignation would make the situation even worse, not only in Syria but in neighboring countries, according to the Voice of Russia.

Syrian state television aired on Thursday the first pictures of Assad since the bombing a day earlier as he attended the swearing-in of a new defense minister. But the report did not specify where the swearing-in took place.

The priority now should be extending the UN Supervision Mission and continuing supporting Annan's mediation efforts, China's Middle East Envoy Wu Sike told Xinhua News Agency.

On Thursday, Britain introduced a "technical" resolution that would extend the mission for another 30 days leaving some space for further negotiations between the big powers. Diplomats said that a vote on that resolution would be held on Friday. However, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the US was not in favor of extending the mission.

Xinhua and AP contributed to this story.

zhaoshengnan@chinadaily.com