WASHINGTON: The United States is warning allies to be prepared to increase pressure on Syria if UN envoy Kofi Annan's plan for ending government attacks on the opposition fails, the State Department said Friday.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made clear to its partners at a meeting in Paris of the "Friends of Syria" group Thursday that "even as we plan for the best, we also have to be prepared if we are not successful to increase the pressure," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
Clinton said that would involve a new UN Security Council resolution under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which authorizes foreign powers to take measures including military action if peace is threatened.
But Nuland said, "With regard to military assistance our policy, with regard to our own posture, has not changed."
Nuland said pressure would take the form of increased sanctions, travel bans, financial pressure and an arms embargo on the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Nuland said the US Agency for International Development also has increased US funding for humanitarian relief victims of the violence in Syria to nearly $33, up $8 million, distributed among UN agencies and non-governmental relief organizations.
Meanwhile, the United States was in discussions at the United Nations over a resolution authorizing a larger force of observers to monitor a shaky ceasefire in Syria, she said.
But Nuland said Washington wanted to make sure the monitors would have freedom of movement, communication and access.
"It's got to be a true, independent international monitoring effort under UN auspices and not under regime control," she said.
"And also it must be able to monitor not just the silencing of the guns but all aspects of the six-point plan," she said.
At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney also said the administration was in discussions with members of the UN Security Council about "next steps," but would not go into detail.
"We obviously remain supportive of the Annan plan. We remain supportive of the steps that are being taken with monitors. But we are also clear-eyed about the failure of the Assad regime to live up to its obligations so far," he said.
Carney acknowledged that a previous UN Security Council resolution on Syria had been vetoed by Russia and China, but said that "in the interim the Assad regime's behavior has become all the more clear."
"I think there is greater acknowledgement around the globe, as well as within the United Nations and the Security Council, of the appalling behavior by the regime," he said.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.