Syria pressure

The European Union sought to ramp up the verbal barrage on Syria Monday, with the bloc's respective foreign ministers seeking an official United Nations condemnation of a violent security crackdown on protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Europe has been watching the events unfold around Syria with dismay as rights groups have reported more than 1,400 civilian deaths in clashes with security forces since demonstrations began in March. As many as 30 were reported killed over the weekend in clashes between pro- and anti-regime forces in the central city of Homs.

Anti-government groups are calling for greater freedoms and the ouster of al-Assad, who has ruled Syria since 2000 following the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who himself was president for nearly three decades.

"This conduct of the Syrian government is in no way acceptable and must be internationally condemned," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said prior to a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels on Monday. "But there still are some big reservations in New York at the UN Security Council and a great deal of convincing to do."

Russia and China have been leading efforts to block any Security Council condemnation on Syria. Westerwelle acknowledged that "many" countries were concerned that a UN resolution could lead down the same path as in Libya, which is still mired in a months-long military conflict despite NATO intervention.

"This has nothing to do with preparing any kind of intervention," he insisted. "It has to do with the international community finding a common language not just with sanctions, but also politically."

The EU has issued two rounds of travel bans and asset freezes in an effort to tighten the screws on al-Assad. Further measures were not expected to come from Monday's meeting.

Legitimacy waning

German news agency DPA has reported that EU ministers were to approve a declaration warning that "by choosing a path of repression instead of fulfilling its own promises of broad reforms, the Syrian regime is calling into question its own legitimacy."

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told reporters the "regime has to give way to a new regime. That's fairly obvious. This regime has run its course, it has lost the credibility and the legitimacy."

Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said the bloc should appeal to al-Assad "in a stern tone" to start talks with the opposition.

The Dutch minister for European affairs, Ben Knapen, meanwhile, said his country "strongly" favored additional sanctions against the regime.

"President al-Assad must stop the repression now and start real democratic reforms or relinquish power. World opinion stands behind the Syrian people. Time is not on his side," Knapen said.

Overnight violence reported on Monday erupted after two Assad supporters were kidnapped and murdered, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. A 12-year-old boy was among those killed in the fighting, the Local Coordination Committees activist group said, adding that attacks had focused on a residential part of the city.

Author: Darren Mara (Reuters, dpa)
Editor: Martin Kuebler