U.N. Assembly passes resolution criticizing Security Council’s failure on Syria

The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution Friday criticizing the Security Council’s failure to act on the Syrian conflict and condemning the government's use of heavy weapons.

The resolution, drawn up by Saudi Arabia with widespread Arab and Western backing, was passed by 133 votes with 12 countries against and 33 abstaining.

The resolution also had the assembly “deploring the failure of the Security Council to agree on measures to ensure the compliance of Syrian authorities with its decisions.”

The anti-Syria resolution easily passed in the 193-member General Assembly after its Arab sponsors de-fanged two key provisions in the original draft -- a demand that President Bashar Assad resign, and a call for other nations to place sanctions on Syria over its civil war.

The Assembly was overshadowed by the resignation of former U.N. chief Kofi Annan on Thursday as the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria after his peace proposals failed.

Though the resolution is not legally binding, there was increased attention on the General Assembly action after the resignation of Annan and the mounting battle for the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Failure of Security Council

The resolution said members deplored “the Security Council failure to agree on measures” to make the Syrian government carry out U.N. demands to end almost 18 months of fighting.

It condemned “the Syrian authorities use of heavy weapons including indiscriminate shelling from tanks and helicopters” and demanded that the government refrain from using its chemical weapons.

Saudi Arabia drew up the resolution with Arab and western backing and its U.N. envoy said the success of the vote was “painful victory” because of events in Syria.

After the vote, Saudi Ambassador Abdullah al-Mouallimi told reporters the double vetoes gave “the impression that the Security Council was turning a blind eye to the painful reality.”

He said there was “a consensus that does not support the paralysis of the Security Council, a consensus that says the United Nations cannot be oblivious to the suffering of the Syrian people, a consensus that demands action.”

During negotiations ahead of the vote, demands that the motion include a call for Assad stand down and a call for sanctions against his government were dropped because of opposition from non-aligned countries.

But it still welcomed an Arab League decision passed last month which calls for Assad to leave office.

Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari addresses the U.N Security Council . (Reuters)

Syria strongly opposed the resolution and its U.N. envoy, Bashar Jafaari accused Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf states of arming rebel groups.

Jafaari said the resolution showed the “hypocrisy” of Saudi Arabia and that it would “no impact whatsoever.”

Jaafari also lashed out at the Qatari and Saudi Arabian media and accused them of defaming his reputation as well as members of his family.

“There have been several threats of murder against me and various Syrian diplomats from sites that exist in Saudi Arabia and Qatar and the United States,” Jaafari told the 193-member assembly before the Saudi-sponsored resolution was passed.

Afterwards, the Syrian envoy told reporters that he had informed U.S. authorities of the threats against him.

While U.S. envoy Susan Rice welcomed the vote, many countries expressed reservations. South Africa, which voted in favor, said the resolution should have been tougher on the Syrian opposition.

Aleppo brutality crimes against humanity

The U.N. secretary general told the General Assembly the conflict has become a “proxy war” and that the international powers must overcome rivalries to end the violence.

The reported brutality in Syria’s biggest city, Aleppo, where forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebels continue to face off in bloody clashes, may amount to crimes against humanity, the U.N. chief said.

“As we meet here, Aleppo ... is the epicenter of a vicious battle between the Syrian government and those who wish to replace it,” Ban told the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly ahead of the vote on the Saudi-drafted resolution that would condemn Damascus, according to Reuters.

“The acts of brutality that are being reported may constitute crimes against humanity or war crimes,” Ban said. “Such acts must be investigated and the perpetrators held to account.”

He also reiterated his concern about the deadlock on the U.N. Security Council. Last month Russia and China joined forces in their third double veto to strike down a resolution that would have called for an end to the violence and threatened Damascus with sanctions.

“I have said many times how much I regret the divisions that have paralyzed action in the Security Council,” he said.

He repeated that he intended to replace U.N.-Arab League mediator Annan, who announced on Thursday his intention to step down at the end of August. Annan said the deadlock on the 15-nation council was among the factors that had undermined his peace efforts. Annan also said that neither side in Syria appeared to want peace, a point Ban echoed on Friday.

“Despite repeated verbal acceptances of the (Annan’s) six-point (peace) plan endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, both the government and the opposition continue to rely on weapons, not diplomacy, in the belief that they will win through violence,” Ban said.

“But there are no winners in Aleppo today, nor anywhere else in the country,” he said. “The losers in this escalating battle are the people of Syria.”

U.N. peacekeepers were accused of not doing enough to stop the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim boys and men in the Bosnian town in July 1995.

“I do not want today’s United Nations to fail that test. I want us all to show the people of Syria and the world that we have learned the lessons of Srebrenica,” the U.N. leader said.

Russia and China have justified their vetoes by saying western nations want to force the downfall of Assad.

At least 21 killed in shelling on Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria: NGO

At least 21 civilians have been killed on Friday in shelling by the Syrian regime forces on the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.

“The number of people killed by the mortar attack on the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp has risen to 21, two of those killed were children. four bodies remain unidentified,” the watchdog reported.

The watchdog said the mortar shells slammed into the camp, on the southern outskirts of Damascus, on Thursday night, as President Bashar al-Assad’s regime pressed its bid to crush an uprising that erupted almost 17 months ago.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the shelling occurred as clashes flared between government troops and opposition fighters in the nearby Damascus neighborhood of Tadamun.

“We demand an international investigation. We do not know the origin of the shelling,” Abdel Rahman told AFP in Beirut on the telephone.

The Observatory also reported heavy shelling overnight around Houla, a town in the central province of Homs where at least 108 people were massacred at the end of May, triggering international outrage.

In the town of Hama, more than 60 people have been killed in what activists described as a new massacre, the Syrian Coordination Committees.

Abu al-Qassim, of the Union of Hama revolutionaries, said the victims included dozens of children, women and members of the opposition Free Army.

“From Yesterday today, more than 60 people have been killed in a real massacre. The city is a ghost town,” he told Al Arabiya by phone.

More than 20,000 people have been killed in Syria since the anti-Assad revolt began in March 2011, according to the Observatory. There is no way to independently verify this figure, while the UN has stopped keeping count.

The Observatory also reported that the Salaheddin neighborhood of Aleppo was bombarded on Friday morning, with clashes continuing in the Zebdiya neighborhood.

Iran blames U.S., others for failure of Annan’s plan-report

Iran blamed Western and Arab countries on Friday for the failure of Kofi Annan’s Syria peace plan, the official IRNA news agency said on Friday, a day after the former U.N. secretary general quit as international envoy.

Annan said on Thursday he was stepping down, frustrated by “finger-pointing” and a stalemate at the U.N. Security Council while the armed rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was becoming increasingly bloody.

“Mr. Annan’s reference to a lack of unity at the Security Council is not a reference to China and Russia. The Americans make projections and try to suggest their own opinion instead of the reality,” IRNA quoted Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying.

“In general, Western countries and some regional countries did not want Mr. Annan’s plan to succeed because in that case, they would not reach their goals,” Salehi said.

Iranian officials have repeatedly voiced support for Annan’s attempt, centered on an April ceasefire that never took hold, to resolve the spiraling crisis that opposition activists say has killed some 18,000 people since March last year.

Shi’ite Muslim Iran backed popular uprisings which removed leaders in Egypt, Libya and Yemen but has steadfastly supported Assad, who is a member of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

Annan repeatedly said regional power Iran should be involved in efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Syria crisis despite the West’s firm rejection of any role.

But in an editorial published by the Financial Times, Annan said Russia, China and Iran “must take concerted efforts to persuade Syria’s leadership to change course and embrace a political transition ... It is clear that President Bashar al-Assad must leave office.”

Iranian leaders have accused the West of plotting with Arab countries to overthrow the Syrian leadership and bolster the status of Israel in the region through backing extremist militant groups.

Last month, Iran said it was ready to host talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups, an offer rejected by members of the Syrian opposition.

“Mr. Annan’s plan will continue since it is the best plan on the table,” Salehi said.

Earlier on Friday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast blamed “some interfering countries” for the failure of Annan’s six-point plan.

The peace plan was supposed to resolve Syria’s conflict with an immediate halt to the violence, withdrawal of heavy weapons and military forces from built-up areas, access for humanitarian aid and journalists, and a political transition.

“Not only these countries did not help ... Annan’s plan, every time his plan succeeded in one area we would witness a rise in terrorist actions in Syria,” Mehmanparast said, according to IRNA.

Russia sends navy vessels with marines aboard to Syria base

Moscow is sending three large landing ships with marines aboard to a Russian naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus, Russian news agencies quoted a source in the general staff as saying on Friday.

The source said each ship would have up to 120 marines on board and that the vessels, already in the Mediterranean, would arrive in Tartus by the end of this week or early next week.

The source said the ships’ mission was to replenish supplies at the small Russian maintenance and repair facility, manned by fewer than 100 personnel, according to analysts.

Russia had earlier said it was preparing to send marines to Syria in case it needed to protect personnel and remove equipment from the naval maintenance facility.

Syria is Moscow’s firmest foothold in the Middle East and bought $1 billion worth of weapons from Russia last year, or about 8 percent of total Russian arms exports.

Tartus is the Russian navy’s only permanent warm water port outside the former Soviet Union.

The source in the Russian General Staff said the three ships would be joined by three other ships from the Russian Navy’s Black Sea and Northern Sea fleets.

The potential loss of Tartus would be a strategic blow to Russia, according to what the Interfax news agency described as a military-diplomatic source.

“Tartus is of extreme military-strategic importance for the Russian Navy, as the backup for the task forces in the Mediterranean. Therefore, its loss would entail deep negative consequences and the actual loss of influence in this key region,” Interfax quoted the source as saying.

The Russian Defence Ministry declined comment. The General Staff source said the ships would head back to the Russian port of Novorossiysk after spending several days in Tartus.

Russia has blamed the West for the failure of diplomatic efforts led by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who resigned on Thursday. Moscow said it regretted his departure.

“He’s an honest broker, but there are those who want to take him out of the game to untie hands for the use of force. It’s already clear,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov wrote in his Twitter microblog.

Russia and China have three times blocked Western-backed U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria that were meant to put more pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Annan quits as Syria peace envoy

Kofi Annan is quitting as UN-Arab League peace envoy for Syria, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general,  has announced, as the 17-month-old conflict spiralled further out of control.

Ban announced "with deep regret" the resignation of Annan on Thursday, who was named to the post on February 23.

Earlier, Annan had told Ban and Nabil El Araby, the general-secretary of the Arab League, of his intention not to renew his mandate when it expires on August 31, 2012.

Annan cited "finger-pointing and name-calling" in the 15-nation Security Council as one of the reasons for his decision to step down, at a news conference in Geneva and in an article published in the UK daily Financial Times on Thursday.

Council diplomats have said privately that the US and Gulf Arab states have become increasingly frustrated in recent weeks with what they saw as Annan's determined commitment to diplomacy at a time when they believe all avenues for dialogue with Assad have been exhausted.

Ban said in the statement that he and El Araby were in discussions on appointing a successor to Annan.

"Kofi Annan deserves our profound admiration for the selfless way in which he has put his formidable skills and
prestige to this most difficult and potentially thankless of assignments," Ban said.

'Finger-pointing'

Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey, reporting from UN headquarters in New York, said it is unclear "what impact this will have on Friday's vote" when the UN General Assembly rule on a Saudi-drafted resolution on Syria.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, was quick to react, suggesting to reporters outside the Security Council in New York that Moscow was disappointed that Annan was bowing out.

"We understand that it's his decision," Churkin told reporters. "We regret that he chose to do so. We have supported very strongly Kofi Annan's efforts.

He has another month to go, and I hope this month is going to be used as effectively as possible under these very difficult circumstances."

Churkin added he was encouraged that Ban was looking for a successor to Annan.

Churkin suggested that Western powers that opposed "reasonable and balanced proposals" in the Security Council undermined Annan's peace efforts from the start.

Aleppo 'under siege'

Western diplomats, however, blame Russia and China for vetoing three council resolutions intended to increase the pressure on Assad to stop his attacks on civilians and halt the fighting, which has escalated into a full-scale civil war.

"His [Annan's] resignation highlights the failure in the United Nations Security Council of Russia and China to support meaningful resolutions against Assad that would have held Assad accountable for his failure to abide by the Annan plan," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"Those vetoes... were highly regrettable and placed both Russia and China on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of the Syrian people."

Doctors in Turkey say they need more help to treat the injured fighters arriving from Syria [Al Jazeera]

Earlier on Thursday, the White House saud that US President Barack Obama had approved an extra $12m in lifesaving humanitarian aid to Syrians to help mitigate what he said were Assad's "horrific atrocities".

The grant brings to $76m the total amount of food, water, medical supplies, clothing, hygiene kits and other aid to some of the 1.5 million people in need in Syria, the White House said in a statement.

According to the Reuters news agency, Obama has also signed a secret order authorising US support for rebels seeking to depose Assad and his government.

Obama's order, approved earlier this year and known as an intelligence "finding", broadly permits the Central Intelligence Agency and other US agencies to provide aid that could help the rebels dislodge Assad from power.

In another development on Thursday, Syrian rebels shelled an airbase used by regime forces to pound the northern city of Aleppo, with a human rights watchdog reporting the killing of dozens near Damascus in a series of government raids.

"Menagh military airport was bombarded on Thursday morning by a tank captured previously by the rebels," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said of the base 30km northwest of Aleppo, the country's commercial capital.

"Aleppo is under siege and the prospect of the loss of thousands more civilian lives in Syria is very high," Annan wrote in the Financial Times article.

Yemeni abductor frees Italian embassy guard

An Italian embassy security agent kidnapped in Yemen over the weekend was freed Thursday in the province of Mareb east of the capital Sanaa, a tribal source and a local official said.

Alessandro Spadotto was released following “tribal mediation” and handed over to local authorities, the source told AFP. He will be driven to the Yemeni capital on Friday morning.

The tribal mediation was backed by the governor of the province, the source said. A local official confirmed the release to AFP.

The interior ministry had said the kidnapper from the al-Jalal tribe seized the 29-year-old in Sanaa to press the authorities to drop charges against him in “cases of murder and banditry” and offer him compensation.

Marebpress, an Internet site close to Yemeni tribes, had said the abductor Ali Naser Huraidkan also wanted the authorities lift a travel ban against him.

“We want the state to respond and cancel a circular banning me from travel,” he was quoted as saying.

According to Italy’s La Stampa newspaper, Spadotto managed to contact a member of his family by mobile text message following his abduction on Sunday.

Italian news agency ANSA had cited officials as saying that he was a member of Italy’s Carabinieri military police. It also said he was picked up while in civilian clothes in a shop near the embassy.

Foreigners are frequently kidnapped in Yemen by armed tribesmen, who use them as bargaining chips with the authorities.

More than 200 people have been abducted in Yemen over the past 15 years. The majority have been freed alive and well.

A French staffer with the International Committee of the Red Cross who was kidnapped in April in the northern port city of Hudaida was released last month unharmed.

But a Swiss woman and a Saudi diplomat kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants in March remain hostages.

Egypt’s president swears in new Cabinet

Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi (C) with his ministers following the swearing in ceremony of the new Egyptian cabinet at the presidential palace in Cairo. (AFP PHOTO/EGYPTIAN PRESIDENCY)

Egypt’s President Mohammed Mursi swore in a new Cabinet on Thursday that retained military chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi as defense minister while giving the Islamists and their allies several portfolios.

The cabinet, sworn in more than a month after the Islamist Mursi took office, reflects the precarious balance of power between the president and the military, which retains broad powers after transferring control to him.

The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party took at least five cabinet seats including education and the information ministry which regulates the media.

Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, a self-described devout Muslim whose appointment dismayed Mursi’s secular election allies, said he chose the ministers based on their competence.

“The main principle, the main criterion, was competence,” he told a news conference.

“We should stop using such terms as them and us, and that this is a Christian, or a Copt, or a Muslim. All I see is Egyptians and citizens,” he said.

“We are the people’s government; we do not represent any trend,” he said.

The little-known Qandil was irrigation minister in the outgoing cabinet before Morsi appointed him last week.

Qandil, a senior manager at the African Development Bank before heading Egypt’s Nile Water Sector, has denied that he had belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood or any other party.

He said the cabinet will comprise 35 ministers, including eight ministers of state, and will have to tackle the “enormous” economic and security challenges facing the country since Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow in February last year.

Seven ministers will remain from the outgoing military appointed cabinet. Former prime minister Kamal Ganzouri will become a presidential adviser, state media reported.

Mursi, who campaigned on promises to revive Egypt’s economy and quickly restore deteriorating security, is eager to push through his program with a technocratic government, his aides have said.

But he must still contend with the military, which has been historically suspicious of the Islamists, and which controls the budget and retains legislative authority after a court ordered the Islamist-dominated parliament disbanded in June.

The military also dominates a powerful national security council headed by Mursi.

Tantawi served as former president Hosni Mubarak’s defense minister for two decades until the military assumed power in February, 2011, ending a mass uprising against Mubarak’s rule.

The military formally handed power to President Mursi at the end of June. But generals remain at the heart of power and play a role in the country’s civilian administration under a decree they issued on the eve of Mursi’s election.

Their powers include the authority to pass laws following their dissolution of the Brotherhood-led parliament.

At least nine ministers also served under the outgoing Cabinet, including Finance Minister Momtaz el-Said and Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, as well as the military production and culture ministers, kept their posts.

Salah Abdul-Maqsoud, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, will be the country’s minister of information.

At least two, including the Youth Ministry, went to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. Some party officials had earlier said they were targeting between 25% to 50% of the ministerial posts.

The following are members of Egypt’s new Cabinet:

*Momtaz El-Said (Finance)
*Osama Saleh (Investment)
*Mohamed Hussein Tantawi (Defense)
*Salah Abdul Maqsoud (Information)
*Osama Kamal (Oil)
*Hany Mahmoud (Communications)
*Mohammed Kamel Amr (Foreign Affairs)
*Osama al-Abd (Religious endowments)
*Mustafa Mosaad (Higher Education)
*Tarik Wafik (Housing)
*Hisham Zazou (Tourism)
*Mohammed Ibrahim (Antiquities)
*Ahmed Zaki Abdeen (Local Development)
*Mohammed Rashad (Transportation)
*Abdul Qawi Khalifa (Public Utilities)
*Mohammed Baha Eddin (Irrigation)
*Nagwa Khalil (Social Insurance)
*Nadia Zukhary (Scientific Research)
*Salah Abdul Mamoun (Agriculture)
*Saad Mohammed Balba (Electricity & Energy)
*Ahmed Gamal Eddin (Interior)
*Abu Zaid Mohammed Abu Zaid (Supply and Internal Trade)
*Mohammed Mahsoub (Legal Affairs)
*Mohammed Rashad el-Meteiny (Transportation)
*Ali Sabry (Military Production)
*Mohammed Saber Arab (Culture)
*Mohammed Mustafa (Health)
*Ibrahim Ahmed Ghoneim (Education)
*Hatem Saleh (Industry and Foreign Trade)
*Ahmed Mekki (Justice)
*Ashraf al-Arabi (Planning and International Cooperation)
*Osama Yaseen (Youth)