Russia said on Wednesday it would consider “constructive proposals” to end bloodshed in Syria but was opposed to force or sanctions, as regime troops reportedly pounded the protest hub of Hama.

“We are open to constructive proposals that go in line with the set task of ending violence,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow after meeting his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.

Lavrov said any U.N. Security Council resolution backed by Russia “must firmly record that it cannot be used or interpreted to justify anyone’s outside military intervention in the Syria crisis.”

His comments came after Russian and U.S. officials held talks in Moscow on how to stop the violence in Syria, which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 5,400 people since it erupted in mid-March.
Russia and China both blocked a previous Western attempt to have the Security Council formally condemn Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on dissent and impose stiff sanctions if he refuses to enter direct talks.

According to diplomats at the United Nations, European and Arab nations are in the process of hammering out a Security Council draft resolution condemning the crackdown.

Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Tuesday warned against foreign “interference,” which he said Russia, a Cold War ally with a naval base at Tartus on the country’s Mediterranean coast, would never accept.

Western governments have capitalized on the Arab League’s tough new stance to launch another drive for U.N. Security Council action despite resistance from Beijing and Moscow.

According to diplomats, European and Arab nations want a vote early next week on a resolution condemning the Syrian crackdown and hinting at sanctions against Assad’s regime.

A first draft of the new resolution, obtained by AFP, notes Arab League sanctions ordered against Syria and “encourages all states to adopt similar steps and fully to cooperate with the League of Arab States in the implementation of its measures.”

Russia’s Lavrov made it clear on Wednesday that any resolution hinting at sanctions would be opposed by Moscow.

“We will not be able to back proposals under which unilaterally imposed sanctions against Syria -- sanctions that were declared without any consultations with Russia or China ... are blessed retroactively,” he said.
Observers withdrawn
Syria’s Muallem on Tuesday informed Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi Damascus agreed to extend the bloc’s observer mission for one month, until February 23.

Their numbers were depleted on Wednesday as the oil-rich Gulf states made good on their decision to withdraw their contingents.

Observers from Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates made no comment to reporters as they left their Damascus hotel, an AFP correspondent reported.

Arab League number two Ahmad bin Helli said the 55 representatives of Gulf states in the 165-strong mission would be replaced.

The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council withdrew its monitors, calling on the U.N. Security Council to take “all needed measures” to press Syria to implement the Arab League decisions.

The U.N. Security Council could vote as early as next week on a draft resolution endorsing the Arab League’s call for Assad to hand powers to his deputy and set up a unity government to prepare for early parliamentary and presidential elections.

The plan also requires the Arab League to dispatch an envoy to Damascus to push for implementation.

The League has approached Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear agency, as a possible candidate for the job of special envoy to Syria to follow up an Arab initiative to ease Assad out of power.

“The Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby has made a number of contacts with prominent Arab figures... and among these figures is Dr. ElBaradei,” Egypt’s state MENA news agency quoted Helli as saying.

Damascus signed up to a League peace plan last year that calls for the withdrawal of troops from population centers, the protection of civilians, the release of detainees and the opening of negotiations with the opposition.

But critics say there has been little tangible progress.
Pounding Hama
Activists said security forces were pounding the central city of Hama for a second straight day on Wednesday.

“The Syrian army is bombarding Hama with heavy weapons, using rocket-propelled grenades,” said a statement from the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which organizes anti-regime protests on the ground.

Syria’s Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the authorities, said the military had launched an offensive aimed at retaking several districts in Hama that were controlled by insurgents.

“The competent authorities have decided to resolve the matter in a definitive manner in order to relieve the city of armed militias,” it said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three civilians were killed in Hama on Wednesday. It said six more civilians were killed in Damascus and Homs, including a mother and her 5-year-old child.

Head of Red Crescent killed
Also on Wednesday, the secretary-general of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent was shot dead on Wednesday as he travelled outside the capital Damascus in a clearly marked vehicle, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

Doctor Abd-al-Razzaq Jbeiro, also head of the Red Crescent branch in the northern town of Idlib, was on the highway to Idlib from Damascus after attending meetings at Red Crescent headquarters, the agency said in a statement.

“Regardless of the circumstances, the ICRC condemns this very severely,” Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, head of ICRC operations for the Near and Middle East, told Reuters in Geneva.

She added that the “lack of respect for medical services” remained a major issue in Syria.

Syrian state television blamed “terrorists” for the killing, saying he had been “assassinated” in Khan Sheikhoun district.

“The president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Dr. AbdulRahman al-Attar, said that he has “officially requested the Syrian authorities to launch an investigation into the death of Dr. Jbeiro,” the ICRC said in a statement.

The ICRC is the only international agency deploying aid workers in Syria. A local Red Crescent volunteer was killed and three others were injured in the flashpoint city of Homs last September when an ambulance came under heavy fire.

Meanwhile Syria’s official SANA news agency said an “armed terrorist group” was also responsible for the death in Hama of priest Bassilius Nassar but the LCC said he was “martyred” during an army assault on the city’s Al-Jarajmah neighborhood.

The Syrian regime blames “terrorist gangs in the pay of foreigners” for the unrest that has swept the country since mid-March, rejecting the assertions of Western governments and human rights watchdogs that the protest movement has been largely peaceful.




(AFP)