Washington — U.S. officials warned that in light of the United Nations Security Council’s failure to support a proposed political solution by the Arab League to end the violence in Syria, the country faces an increased risk of civil war.
Senior Obama administration officials added that the United States will continue to work with the international community outside the United Nations and use diplomatic and economic pressure in response to the Syrian government’s brutality against its people and in support of a peaceful political transition in the country.
Speaking in Bulgaria February 5, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States and others in the Security Council who voted in support of the Arab League’s proposal had hoped it would start political engagement inside the country that would lead to a transition after nearly one year of protests in which at least 5,400 Syrian civilians have been killed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Clinton said it should not be a surprise that many Syrians are moving to defend themselves against their government, and she said the U.N.’s failure to approve a political process will “increase the chances for a brutal civil war.”
The Arab League plan called for an end to the violence and the release of political prisoners. It also called for Assad to delegate power to the Syrian vice president and allow the creation of a national government of unity. However, in a 13–2 vote on February 4, China and Russia exercised their Security Council vetoes and prevented the measure from being adopted.
“Faced with a neutered Security Council, we have to redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people’s right to have a better future,” Clinton said, by using diplomatic pressure as well as a full implementation of regional and national sanctions to “dry up the sources of funding and the arms shipments that are keeping the regime’s war machine going.”
“We will work to expose those who are still funding the regime and sending them weapons that are used against defenseless Syrians, including women and children. And we will work with the friends of a democratic Syria around the world to support the opposition’s peaceful political plans for change,” she said, as well as to try to provide humanitarian relief.
At the White House, press secretary Jay Carney told reporters February 6 that despite the U.S. disappointment over the U.N. vote, pressure on Assad and his regime is continuing to intensify.
“He has dwindling financial resources. He has dwindling access to what he needs to continue to govern. His regime has lost control of parts of the country. There are a number of indications of the desire to depart from the regime by senior Syrian government and military officials. These are telltale signs that Assad’s future is very limited at best,” he said.
Carney said that although U.S. officials “take no options off the table” in their response to the ongoing violence, “the right solution in Syria is a political solution. And there remains an opportunity for that to be achieved, for that transition to democracy to take place.”
U.S. SUSPENDS EMBASSY OPERATIONS IN DAMASCUS
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland announced that, because of the Assad regime’s failure to adequately respond to U.S. security concerns over the safety of its diplomatic personnel, the United States had suspended its embassy’s operations in Damascus.
“Our concern is that the situation in and around Damascus is becoming increasingly violent, reflecting the fact that the regime is increasingly losing control of the situation because it itself has resorted to violence rather than dialogue with its own people,” she said February 6.
Nuland said Robert Ford has left Damascus and will be returning to Washington, but that he remains the U.S. ambassador to Syria.
She said Ford and other U.S. officials will maintain their contacts with the Syrian people and especially with the Syrian opposition “so that we can make sure that the Syrian people know that we stand with them and their desire for a democratic future.”