The resolution strongly condemns Bashar Assad’s regime for human rights violations and backs an Arab League plan calling for the Syrian leader to step down.
The wording is similar to a Security Council resolution vetoed by Russia and China on February 4.
General Assembly resolutions, however, can’t be vetoed, but they are non-binding as well.
On the eve of the expected vote, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urged the General Assembly to call on the Syrian government “to put an end to all human rights violations, and to demand accountability for the crimes committed.”
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to meet his French counterpart Alain Juppe in Vienna to discuss a French UN Security Council proposal to create humanitarian corridors to ease the plight of civilians caught up in the violence.
“I cannot comment because haven’t seen what is written in that resolution, but one thing is clear: all decisions that foresee the deployment of an international presence on any territory have to be taken under the condition that all parties to the conflict give their agreement. This is a basic principle of all UN peacekeeping deployments and this can not be ignored,” Lavrov told reporters in Vienna on February 15.
Lavrov also welcomed news that Assad has ordered a February 26 referendum on a new constitution that would end the monopoly of the Baath party in Syrian politics.
Like Syria’s opposition, Washington was skeptical of Assad’s intentions.
“It looks like he’s putting forward a piece of paper that he controls, to a vote that he controls, in an effort to try to maintain control, and it’s frankly not working in any other capacity, so we don’t think this is going to work either,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Thomas Countryman said Washington was “deeply concerned” about arms transfers from Iran and Russia to Syria.
He said the United States was also concerned about the fate of “tens of thousands” of shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles Syria is believed to have.
Inside Syria, government forces were reported to be continuing their assaults on the opposition strongholds of Homs and Hama.
In Homs, an explosion hit a pipeline supplying a refinery.
compiled from agency reports
Source Article from http://www.rferl.org/content/un_general_assembly_syria_/24485595.html
