Western pressure on Syria grows ahead of UN debate

Western countries are preparing to push for a tough resolution at a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis in Syria. Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi will be asking the Council to back the League’s new plan calling on President Bashar al-Assad to resign. Western foreign ministers who back the Arab plan will try to overcome Russia’s threat to veto any such resolution. The diplomacy follows a day of particularly heavy bloodshed, with more than 100 people killed across Syria. Activists say more than 40 civilians were among the dead in Monday’s violence, but their claims cannot be independently verified as the the BBC and other international media are severely restricted inside Syria. The UN has conceded it cannot keep track of the overall death toll, but estimates more than 5,400 people have been killed since the unrest began last March. A Syrian Foreign Ministry official said Syria would “defeat the policies of chaos”, state news agency Sana said. “We regret that those statements are still coming from countries accustomed to making the Middle East a field for their foolishness and failing experiments,” the official added. The plan proposed by the Arab League, and backed by the US, UK and France, calls for Mr Assad to hand power to a deputy who would then form a government of national unity. Moscow said this is “not balanced” and would “leave open the possibility of intervention” in Syria’s affairs. The White House said on Monday that Mr Assad had lost control of Syria, adding “he will go”. The US called on countries to decide where they stand on what it calls the Syrian regime’s brutality.