French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe yesterday increased pressure on Russia to support a UN Security Council resolution against the Syrian regime, describing the lack of such a clear statement of condemnation as a “scandal.”
Juppe said during a visit to Canberra that Russia and France remained divided over Syria following talks between French and Russian foreign and defense ministers in Moscow last week.
Russia wants Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government to halt its violence against protesters and to expedite reforms.
“We think the regime has lost its legitimacy, that it’s too late to implement a program of reform,” Juppe told reporters between meetings with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.
“Now we should adopt in New York the resolution condemning the violence and supporting the dialogue with the opposition,” he said.
“It’s a scandal not to have a clearer position of the UN on such a terrible crisis,” he said.
The UN estimates that 2,200 people have been killed in the crackdown on anti-government protests that erupted in mid-March.
Juppe said while Russia still proposed using its veto in the UN Security Council to stop a resolution of condemnation, France would continue pursuing it with Britain and other countries.
Russia is due to host Assad’s adviser Buthaina Shaaban today. Mikhail Margelov, foreign affairs chief in Russia’s upper house of parliament, said he would meet Shaaban to try to get approval to send a delegation of Russian senators to Damascus.
Meanwhile, the Arab League on Saturday announced an agreement with Assad on long-promised reforms.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi met Assad about a 13-point document outlining Arab proposals to broker an end to the bloodshed, hold elections and push for reforms in the league member state.
During the talks, Arabi said the league and other Arab countries “reject any form of foreign interference in Syrian domestic affairs,” the SANA news agency reported.
Arabi said they had reached an “agreement on steps to carry out the reforms, [and] the elements will be submitted to the council of the Arab League,” which meets in Cairo today.
SANA reported that Assad said that there was a need “to not get caught in campaigns of disinformation against Syria.”
It said Assad denounced the campaign of spreading “wrong facts” aimed in his opinion “to harm the image of Syria and destabilize” the country.
Arabi’s mission came as activists reported new deaths. Syrian forces killed at least 12 people across the country, including eight in the central Homs region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other activists said.
The body of a militant, Ghiyath Matar, who played a key role in organizing anti-regime demonstrations, was given to his family, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch, which cited activists.
Matar, who was arrested Sept. 6, died of torture, it said. He had bruises on the chest and signs of injuries to the face, activists said.
The observatory yesterday said prominent rights campaigner Najati Tayara was in a “very bad” health condition after he was “severely” beaten at a Homs prison.
The Britain-based observatory said in a statement that it “has learned that investigators at the so-called ‘Polish’ prison in Homs severely beat Tayara on Friday … He is in a very bad health condition. He has been moved to the military intelligence division in Damascus.”
Tayara, 66, was arrested in Homs on May 12, a day after he reported that shelling and gunfire had rocked the city.
“He was referred to court on charges of harming the prestige of the state,” the statement said, adding that he was released from Homs central prison on Aug. 31, but later arrested by intelligence officials.
“The observatory holds the Syrian authorities responsible for any danger that threatens the life of Tayara,” the group said. “It condemns the continued arbitrary arrests of opponents and activists, and calls for their immediate release.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the