The German Cabinet agreed Thursday to send Patriot missiles and up to
400 soldiers to Turkey to deter the Syrian civil war from spilling into
the country. FULL STORY
Clinton spearheads new diplomatic push on Syria
December 6, 2012 -- Updated 2253 GMT (0653 HKT)
German soldiers stand next to a cargo plane in Afghanistan in November. Berlin has agreed to send up to 400 troops to Turkey.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Clinton meets with the U.N. special envoy to Syria and Russia's foreign minister
- A top Russian politician says Syria "is not up to the task" to do its job
- At least 47 people are killed across Syria Thursday, opposition activists say
- Syria would never use chemical weapons against its people, a regime official says
"Events on the ground in
Syria are accelerating, and we see that in many different ways. The
pressure against the regime in and around Damascus seems to be
increasing," Clinton said before meeting with Russia's foreign minister
and the U.N. special envoy to Syria.
Chemical weapons were one
topic on the table, said Clinton, who met with the leaders while she
was in Dublin for a international security conference.
CNN reported Monday that
Syrian forces battling rebels in fierce fighting had started combining
chemicals that could be used to make deadly sarin gas for weapons. NBC
reported Wednesday night that Syria is loading chemical weapons into
bombs. CNN has not confirmed the NBC report.
Photos: Showdown in Syria
Inside Syrian city scarred by war
Report: Syria readying chemical weapons
Syrian refugees' misery
Is Assad seeking asylum?
Syrian Deputy Foreign
Minister Faisal Mekdad rejected the suggestion Thursday. "Syria would
never use chemical weapons, even if it had them, against its own
people," he told Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV.
He also warned that any foreign intervention against Syria would be "catastrophic" for the entire region.
In Dublin Thursday, U.N.
envoy Lakhdar Brahimi told reporters that the leaders discussed a peace
process to "get Syria back from the brink."
"We have agreed that the
situation is bad and we have agreed that we must continue to work
together to see how we can find creative ways of bringing this problem
under control and hopefully starting to solve it," he told reporters.
Earlier, Clinton also met one on one with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Russia has blocked
action against al-Assad at the United Nations, but diplomats say Moscow,
which has insisted there should be no "regime change" in Syria, now
increasingly doubts that al-Assad can survive in power.
On Thursday, a top
Russian politician said the Syrian government "is not up to the task" to
do its job and "fulfill its functions," the Interfax news agency
reported. Russian State Duma Deputy Speaker Vladimir Vasiliev said
Russia wanted to create conditions where security forces inside Syria
would take the situation under control, but Russia's "influence with the
Syrian leadership has been limited."
Diplomatic efforts to
help end the 21-month conflict, which opposition activists say has
claimed more than 42,000 lives, have so far failed.
At least 47 people died
Thursday, most of them in Damascus and Aleppo, according to the
opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria. CNN cannot confirm
claims by the government or the opposition because of government
restrictions that prevent journalists from reporting freely within
Syria.
Brahimi has not yet
proposed a specific plan to try to end the fighting, but Clinton and
Lavrov did work one out in June in Geneva.
That plan, which
ultimately stalled, proposed the creation of a transitional government
along with al-Assad leaving office. But Russia later balked at any U.N.
Security Council measure that would include sanctions or military
action. Clinton insisted any U.N. resolution "have teeth."
The United States has
also expressed concerns about the increasing radicalization of some
armed factions of the opposition and is moving toward declaring al-Nusra
Front a terrorist organization.
Such groups present a
dilemma for the United States. Al-Nusra Front, officials say, has
ruthless and effective fighters that are spearheading gains against
al-Assad's weakening forces.
But the stronger the
radical groups become, the more the United States worries that the
fighting -- not political efforts to find a solution -- will decide the
outcome in Syria. As a result, Washington has been pushing the
opposition to unite. That process is unfolding with the recent creation
of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition
Forces.
Speaking in Brussels,
Belgium, Wednesday, Clinton noted: "Now that there is a new opposition
formed, we are going to be doing what we can to support that
opposition."
Early next week, Clinton
will travel to Marrakesh, Morocco, for a meeting of the Friends of the
Syrian People, a gathering of countries that support the political
transition.
Clinton said she would
"explore with like-minded countries what more we can do to try bring
this conflict to an end." The Obama administration, while providing, for
now, non-lethal assistance, is expected to take the first steps toward
officially recognizing the National Coalition at that meeting.
Clinton also reiterated
Wednesday the strong U.S. position set out by President Barack Obama on
Monday over any possible use by Syria of chemical weapons. She said the
international community is sending a clear message to Damascus.
"Our concerns are that
an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to chemical weapons or
might lose control of them to one of the many groups that are now
operating within Syria," she said.
"And so, as part of the
absolute unity that we all have on this issue, we have sent an
unmistakable message that this would cross a red line and those
responsible would be held to account."
U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said on a visit to Baghdad Thursday that he had expressed
his "gravest concerns" to Syria's government over any use of chemical
weapons and had written directly to al-Assad.
He warned that anyone responsible for the use of chemical weapons would face serious consequences.
Ban is to meet with the
head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in
Baghdad to discuss how it can work with the United Nations on the issue.
NATO foreign ministers
agreed this week to a request by Turkey for Patriot missiles to be
deployed along its border to bolster its air defenses against potential
Syrian threats.
Errant Syrian artillery shells struck the Turkish border town of Akcakale and killed five Turkish civilians in October.
Early Thursday, the
German Cabinet agreed to send Patriot missiles and up to 400 soldiers to
Turkey to deter the Syrian civil war from spilling into the country.
In addition to Germany,
the United States and Netherlands, both of which have Patriot
capabilities, have signaled they would be willing to contribute
missiles.
"Any deployment will be
defensive only. It will in no way support a no-fly zone or any offensive
operation," the NATO statement said.
Germany's parliament will vote on the deployment between December 12 and 14, the foreign ministry said.
"The transfer of German
Patriot air defense systems, in close cooperation with the Netherlands
and the United States, underscores Germany's reliability as an alliance
member," it said in a prepared statement.
NATO's decision was made as the fears surfaced that the Assad regime might be preparing to use chemical weapons.
"The Syrian stockpiles of chemical weapons are a matter of great concern," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
"We know that Syria
possesses missiles. We know they have chemical weapons and, of course,
they also have to be included in our calculations," he said. "And this
is also the reason why it is a matter of urgency to ensure effective
defense and protection of our ally Turkey."
In the United States, Republican Sen. John McCain said Thursday that time may be running out.
"If true, these reports
may mean that the United States and our allies are facing the prospect
of an imminent use of weapons of mass destruction in Syria, and this may
be the last warning we get," McCain said. "The time for talking about
what to do may now be coming to a close and we may instead be left with
an awful and very difficult decision."
COPY edition.cnn.com
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário