The United Nations, at the Security Council Stakeout on Syria

8/3/2019 The United Nations, at the Security Council Stakeout on Syria.

1/4

The United Nations, at the Security Council Stakeout on Syria.

January10, 2012

Ambassador Rice: Before we get started, I want to note for therecord a milestone development at the US Mission to the UnitedNations, which isthe fact that Mark Kornblau has now become afather and welcomed intothe world a beautiful young daughternamed Lexie. So, congratulations Mark, we're all very proud of you.It's the happiest adventure you will have in your life, being a parent.

Coming to the substance of the day, as you know, we had theopportunity in consultations to hear a briefing from Under-Secretary-General Lynn Pascoe. He covered principally Syria and

also commented on Iraq and Guinea-Bissau as requested by somemembers of the Council.

The briefing we received on Syria was alarming by any standard.The Under-Secretary-General noted that in the days since the ArabLeague monitoring mission has been on the ground, in fact, someestimated 400 additional people have been killed, an average of 40a day, a rate much higher than was the case before theirdeployment. That is a clearindication that the government of Syria,rather than using the opportunity of its commitment to the Arab

League to end the violence and fulfill all of its commitments underthe protocol, is instead stepping up the violence despite thepresence of monitors and carrying out further acts of brutalityagainst its population even often in the presence of those monitors.

Clearly this is something we profoundly condemn; it is part of apattern that has characterized the abuses of the Assad regime. It


2/4

has long been the view of the United States that Assad should stepaside and yield to the wishes of the Syrian people for a governmentthat reflects the rule of the people and indeed is unified andcommitted to peaceful progress for the country.Unfortunately, rather than take that approach, we heard the vitriolofPresident Assad's speech today and further belittling by him ofthe Arab League, which we found offensive given the entireinternational community, the United States and all members of theSecurity Council are united in support of the Arab League initiative,and it is somethingt hat the Syrian government themselvescommitted to embrace.Moreover, we are deeply concerned by reports that at least two ofthemonitors of the Arab League today--two Kuwaitis--wereroughed up, harmed, harassed, hurt, in the context of their work.

The Arab League, as I understand it, has issued a statementstrongly condemning that and pointing the finger, putting theblame, very squarely on pro-regime elements that were responsiblefor the attacks on the human rights monitors from Kuwait. And so,as the Arab League has, we call on the government of Syria touphold its obligations to ensure the protection, the safety, thefreedom of movement of the monitors, which has been anythingbut honored to date.

I'm happy to take a couple of quick questions.Reporter: Thank you. President Assad said today that what ishappening inhis country is a foreign conspiracy. What is the UnitedStates --- going to be a tougher line in the Security Council? Areyou going to take a tougher line in the Security Council in order toconvince Russia, mainly, to accept, to submit a new draftresolution?Ambassador Rice: To say that it's a foreign conspiracy is franklyan insult to the people of Syria who are dying on the streets at the

handsof their own government as they try to express freely theirrights to peaceful expression and freedom of assembly and to bringabout, through peaceful means, a better future and a moreresponsive government.The United States has been very clear andvery forceful in its approach to the crisis in Syria from the veryoutset. We imposed tough sanctionson the Syrian regime, and wehave incrementally increased them. We havejoined with partners in


3/4

Europe and the Arab world to broaden and deepen those sanctions.And we have pressed, as you know, for a strong and meaningfulresponse from this Council on what is transpiring in Syria. We thinkit is long past time that the Council passes a strong resolution thatsupports the Arab League and all of the elements of the Arab

League initiative, including its call for sanctions.Unfortunately,after a bit of a show last month of tabling a resolution, the Russiansinexplicably have been more or less AWOL in terms ofleadingnegotiations on the text of that resolution. We and manyother members of the Council have offered a number ofamendments. We were happy to engage in a process, but wethought that that document, that ultimate resolution that mightemerge from negotiations had to be credible; it had to becomprehensive. We could not cherry-pick among aspects of theArab League initiative that some may like and leave aside those that

some may not like. We needed to endorse the Arab Leagueand support it in total.

Reporter: Ambassador, are you suggesting that Russia is not actingin good faith? Negotiations are also...Germany and Britain sort offavored an Arab League briefing, I understand today, by the QatariAmbassador inthe Council... did they not think that this would be agood idea to havea briefing in the Council and what's the USposition on that?Ambassador Rice: First of all, I'm not talking about good faith andbad faith. I'm simply describing where we are in the processofconsultations and deliberations on the Russian draft resolution.There was a flurry of activity before the holidays, and there wassome expectations raised last week in consultations that therewould be further negotiations and to date, despite our collectivereadiness to address this, we haven't seen the Russians come backto the Council witha new text. I hope that they will soon. What wasthe second part of your question?

Reporter: The second part was that Germany had this idea of havingan Arab League briefing and also the Qatari head of thecommittee...Ambassador Rice: Well there was some suggestion by a couplemembers ofthe Council that perhaps after the 19th of January whenthe Arab League is again reconvened to take a more formal


4/4

assessment of the monitoring mission that it might be worthwhilefor the Council to have the opportunity to hear from the ArabLeague. And certainly we would welcome that, but I think it wasreally an informal suggestion rather than any formal proposal.

Reporter: You talked about the 400 casualty figure since the ArabLeague monitors have arrived in Syria. A large number of thosecasualties can be attributed to terrorist attacks, and during thesame period, we've also seen the rise of the Free Syrian Army andmore activity by them. Doy ou think it's fair to blame the escalatingviolence solely on the Assad government?

Ambassador Rice: Well, first of all, I was referring to figuresthat Under-Secretary-General Pascoe cited in his briefings. Myunderstanding was he was not talking about loss of life that

occurred in the terrorist attacks but the number that the UN, as youknow, has been progressively citing, which is now over 5,000people that have lost their lives in the context of the uprising. So Ithink the terrorist casualties are a separate figure. But you cancertainly seek clarification. But clearly we have condemned as aSecurity Council and on a national basis the terrorist attacks thathave occurred of late in Syria, and we condemn such attackswherever they may occur. And there is no doubt that those arehappening, but that is a separate phenomenon and afrankly-fortunately--a lesser phenomenon than what we see--and have

seen for almost ten months now--which is the government of Syriawillingly and blatantly and in cold blood massacring its own people.

Thank you.

Documents

The United Nations, at the Security Council Stakeout on Syria