Hillary Clinton, US calls for tough measures on Syria
The US has called on the UN Security Council to adopt an arms embargo and other tough measures against Syria to try to halt 13 months of bloodshed.
Addressing the so-called Friends of Syria group in Paris on Thursday, Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, stopped short of calling for outside military intervention, but said it was time to impose more consequential measures on President Bashar al-Assad if his country failed to abide by a peace plan drafted by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.
Bashar al-Assad under pressure April 2011 cartoon by Carlos Latuff via wikimedia commons
“We have to keep Assad off balance by leaving options on the table,” Clinton said.
“We need to start moving very vigorously in the Security Council for a Chapter 7 sanctions resolution, including travel, financial sanctions, an arms embargo, and the pressure that that will give us on the regime to push for compliance with Kofi Annan’s six-point plan.”
Clinton’s remarks came as Syria and the UN signed an agreement on the terms for the observer mission deployed under the Annan plan.
However, the question of whether the mission can expand while violence continues has yet to be resolved.
Both the government and the opposition have blamed each other for violations of a ceasefire which officially took hold on April 12.
Only seven of the 30-men strong advance mission have so far arrived in Syria, and the Security Council must pass a resolution allowing the full mission which could number up to 300.
Full page of Hillary Clinton quotes HERE
