U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other high-level officials will attend a UN Security Council meeting on Syria on Tuesday, the U.S. envoy to the UN said here Monday.
"Secretary Clinton will be here on behalf of the United States
and I believe other ministers will be in attendance and we look
forward to an important discussion in the council followed by
continued negotiations," said Susan Rice, U.S. permanent
representative to the UN.
"We're looking forward to tomorrow's session when we will have
the prime minister of Qatar as well as the Arab League (AL)
secretary-general briefing the council," Rice said.
Rice told reporters of Clinton's visit as she spoke outside the
Security Council chambers.
At the meeting slated on Tuesday, the 15-nation council will
discuss the ongoing crisis in Syria and a draft resolution proposed
by the Moroccan delegation to the UN on the situation of the
troubled Middle Eastern country.
Rice said the U.S. is in favor of the Moroccan resolution.
However, Russia voiced its strong opposition to the draft jointly
drawn up by Arab states, Britain, France and Germany.
"We certainly strongly support the draft text that Morocco has
tabled," she said. "We think that it's vitally important that the
Security Council support and embrace the Arab League plan in total
and we will certainly be maintaining that position as the council
discuses and debates next steps including the text on the table."
According to Rice, the draft resolution proposed by Morocco
contains no authorization of the use of force and no mention of
sanctions.
"It is primarily a straightforward condemnation of what has
transpired, a call upon the government of Syria to adhere to the
commitments it made to the Arab League and an endorsement of the
Arab League plan which we think is vitally important and the minimum
the council should do," she told reporters.
Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council,
said on Monday that Moscow will not support the new draft resolution
on Syria.
"The current Western draft has not gone too far from the October
versos, and, certainly, cannot be supported by us," Gennady Gatilov,
deputy foreign minister of Russia told Intefax news agency in
Moscow.
In October, Russia, together with China that is also a permanent
council member, vetoed the European-drafted resolution on Syria that
would have condemned Damascus and threatened it with possible
sanctions.
Nabil al-Arabi, secretary general of the AL, arrived at the UN on
Sunday to seek Security Council support for a proposal to end the
months-long unrest in Syria by asking President Bashar al- Assad to
resign.
Al-Arabi and Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-
Thani will be present at the Tuesday council meeting on Syria. The
UN says at least 5,400 people have been killed in the unrest that
began in March. The Syrian government, however, says more than 2,000
army and security personnel have been killed during the violence.
