New sanctions on table at Friends of Syria meeting
By VICTORIA JONES
Talk Radio News Service
WASHINGTON – The U.S. is set to call for tough UN sanctions against President Assad and his inner circle at a “Friends of Syria” meeting of over 100 Western and Arab nations in Paris today. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is attending.
Despite the estimated killing of more than 16,500 people in the 16 month uprising, key Syria allies Russia and China – both with UN veto rights – will not attend.
The U.S. and France will lead the call for sanctions, which the U.S. says should include Chapter 7 economic sanctions
Chapter 7 allows for sanctions ranging from economic measures to an arms embargo and, if necessary, military forces. It was last used against Libya in 2011. It could be highly controversial at the Security Council, given Russia and China’s veto powers.
China and Russia insist Syrians should decide their own fate and do not rule out Assad remaining in power in some form. The West insists Assad should not be part of any new unity government.
“We demand the Syrian file be sent to the Security Council with a Chapter 7 resolution to force the regime to implement the Annan plan,” said opposition Syrian National Council European coordinator Monzer Makhous.
Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, a commander in Syria’s elite Republican Guards, who was a member of the Damascus aristocracy and a close friend and contemporary of Assad, was reported on Thursday to have fled the country and defected. If confirmed, he would be the first from within the gilded inner circle and the kind of embarrassing departure long anticipated to indicate that the government’s cohesion was cracking. Tlass is a Sunni (Assad is an Alawite) who apparently has been largely sidelined for the past year.
Some opposition figures were not particularly charitable, suggesting he fled to save the family’s substantial fortune as the government collapses. He was described by a former very senior regime member as a “spoiled brat, a playboy, a womanizer” who nevertheless could be very valuable to the West if he chose to talk about regime secrets, which he would know.
Wikileaks said Thursday it would begin releasing a cache of more than 2.4 million emails between Syrian politicians, government officials and companies dating from 2006 until March of this year.
Short URL: http://reportergary.com/?p=25894
Posted by Gary
on Jul 6 2012. Filed under Breaking News, Human Rights, Top stories, World.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
No suprise here @ Russia & China not attending… i’m assuming Iran won’t either… its a well documented fact that bot Iran and Russia have a vested interest in the voilence in Syria continuing = they are selling them arms, even though denying so. A ship in UK waters heading from Russia to Syria had its insurance dropped and had to head back for carrying weapons ( refurbished helicopters) June 19th.
As far as the Tlass defection, he is seeing the writing on the wall & had already sent his father to Paris ( supposedly for medical treatment) and his brother conviently was ” in Dubai on business” when he defected…. the whereabouts of his female realitives and children are unkown.
Assad may very well hold the key to WWIII in his hands, the more contries seem to “pick sides”…..
What is yet to be seen that we DON’T know, is the amount of chemical and bio weapons he already had, or was storing for Saddam, or whether or not he has the balls to use them.
What we DO know is his arrogance far overshadows his intelligence or common sense, and his windows of oppertunity for political assylum or amnesty have long since closed now.
The only exception would be Iran, or a remote possibilty somewhere in South America Venezuela or Argentina maybe will take him.
Personally, I see him meeting a similar fate to Gadaffi.