UN Talks Start on Syria, Russia Opposes Chapter 7
Russia said on Thursday it would not agree to a threat of sanctions against Syria as a deeply divided United Nations Security Council began negotiations on a resolution to extend a UN monitoring mission there.
The 15-member council must decide the future of the UN mission, known as UNSMIS, before July 20, when its 90-day mandate expires. The UNSMIS was deployed to monitor a failed truce as part of international envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.
Russia has proposed extending the mission for 90 days, but Britain, the United States, France and Germany countered with a draft resolution to extend the mission for just 45 days and place Annan's peace plan under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.
Chapter 7 allows the council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention.
The Security Council is currently due to vote next Wednesday.
Ambassadors from the five veto-wielding council nations - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - met Thursday morning to discuss the texts. Experts from the 15 council nations then held closed-door discussions ahead of a private meeting Thursday afternoon of the 15 council ambassadors.
"We are definitely against Chapter 7. Anything can be negotiated, but we do not negotiate this, this is a red line," Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Alexander Pankin told reporters.
Russia and China previously vetoed UN resolutions designed to pressure Syria.
Negotiations are unlikely to move quickly. After the first round of talks on Thursday, French UN Ambassador Gerard Araud said that negotiators started 10 miles apart, and "now we are 10 miles less 5 centimeters."
Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar al-Jaafari said on Wednesday that countries raising the threat of sanctions were not helping efforts to end the conflict and maintained that Damascus was committed to Annan's peace plan.
Annan asked the UN Security Council on Wednesday to make clear to Syria's government and opposition there would be "clear consequences" for not complying with his plan to broker peace in a conflict that has killed thousands.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org
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