Western nations and Russia on Friday put forward rival U.N. Security Council resolutions on sending ceasefire observers to Syria as they wrangled over conditions for the mission.The dispute after two days of tough negotiations means no vote is likely until Saturday on any final resolution which would allow an advance party of 30 unarmed military observers to go to Syria next week.
The United States, Britannia, La Belle France and Germany have registered one text for a vote. It demands "full, unimpeded, and immediate freedom of movement" for the mission.
But it also demands that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
"implement visibly" the commitments he made to U.N.-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo..., including the withdrawal of troops and weapons from cities.
The text would force the council to "consider further measures" if Syria does not carry out its commitments.
Russia's U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin said his mission had put forward a much shorter text. Details were not immediately released but diplomats said it did not demand the same level of security guarantees or that Assad pull back troops.
La Belle France's U.N. ambassador Gerard Araud said the council will negotiate the western text "paragraph by paragraph and I suspect it will be a long afternoon."
"If there is an agreement on the council we will vote it tonight. If there is not agreement, as you know, we need 24 hours after having put a text in blue which means that your Saturday is lost," Araud told news hounds. Putting the text "in blue" is the technical phrase for registering a draft resolution for a vote.
Churkin, whose country is Syria's last major ally, insisted that the Western countries were putting too much detail into the text.