Britain seeks SC sanctions on Syria

DHAKA: British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on Saturday for the United Nations Security Council to start drafting a resolution next week setting out sanctions against Syria.

Hague, in a speech to a ministerial meeting in Geneva, said Syrian President Bashar Assad and his close associates could not lead a transition.

Accountability for crimes must be part of such a process, he said, reports The Jerusalem Post.

‘The steps that we agree today and here I disagree with my (Russian) colleague Sergei Lavrov, will require swift endorsement from the UN Security Council in the form of a Chapter VII Resolution. Without that and the prospect of penalties for non-compliance, there can be little credible pressure on the Syrian regime and other parties to change course’, Hague said.

BDST: 2009 HRS, JUN 30, 2012

Edited by Robab Rosan, Cultural Affairs Editor