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pampango

(24,692 posts)
Mon Feb 13, 2012, 04:30 PM Feb 2012

EU countries back UN peacekeepers in Syria

Libya-type military strikes in Syria are still "out of the question," but France, Italy and the UK have backed a call to send in UN peacekeepers. The three countries spoke out on Monday (13 February) in reaction to an appeal for UN intervention by the Arab League.

The league at its meeting in Cairo on Sunday called for the UN Security Council (UNSC) to send in UN-hatted soldiers. Its resolution also pledged to give "all forms of political and material support" to the Syrian opposition - a clause widely understood to mean arms shipments.

Syria itself is staunchly opposed to the Arab plan. Its UN ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday said the opposition is working with Al-Qaeda and called the Arab text "an incitement to terrorism."

But the country's biggest ally in the UN - Russia - was less categorical. Russia just last week vetoed and EU-and-Arab-League-backed UN resolution on stopping violence in Syria. But on Monday its foreign minister at a meeting in Moscow with his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates - one of Syria's biggest enemies - said it is seeking "further clarification" of the new Arab League plan.

http://euobserver.com/24/115245

It will be interesting if Russia comes to see the new Arab League peacekeeper plan as a way to do "something" about the escalating violence in Syria. We'll see what Russia means by "seeking further clarification" of the AL's peace plan really means.

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