Clinton to U.N.: Act on Syria or Be Complicit in Violence

31 January 2012

The Obama administration has strongly urged the United Nations Security Council to back an Arab League plan for ending the violence in Syria that proposes a democratic transition in the country after nearly one year of violence and at least 5,400 civilians killed by their government’s security forces.

Speaking at the U.N. Security Council in New York January 31, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, “We all have a choice: Stand with the people of Syria and the region or become complicit in the continuing violence there.”

Addressing members of the council, Clinton said the Arab League plan “represents the best effects and efforts of Syria’s neighbors to chart a way forward, and it deserves a chance to work.”

In its proposal, the Arab League has demanded that Bashar al-Assad’s regime immediately stop all attacks against the Syrian people and allow them to peacefully demonstrate, as well as release all of those it has arbitrarily detained, return its military forces to their barracks and allow independent monitors, humanitarian workers and journalists to have “full and unhindered access” to the country, Clinton said.

In addition, “we urge the Security Council to back the Arab League’s call for an inclusive Syrian-led political process to effectively address the legitimate aspirations and concerns of Syria’s people, conducted in an environment free from violence, fear, intimidation and extremism,” she said.

The secretary warned that in the face of months of continued attacks by Syrian security forces, more citizens are taking up arms to resist the brutality, and as a result “violence is increasingly likely to spiral out of control” in the country.

The longer the situation continues “the harder it will be to rebuild once President Assad and his regime is transitioned and something new and better takes its place,” Clinton said.

“Syria belongs to its 23 million citizens, not to one man or his family,” she said.

Despite Assad’s brutality, Clinton said change is coming to the country, but she asked, “How many more innocent civilians will die before this country is able to move forward toward the kind of future it deserves?”

She condemned the Syrian government’s “divide-and-conquer” strategy, in which it has pitted the country’s many ethnic and religious communities against each other, and said that the voices and participation of all minorities will be needed in a post-Assad Syria to help ensure universal rights, the rule of law and the end of widespread corruption in the country.

Addressing Syrian minorities directly, Clinton said: “We do hear your fears and we do honor your aspirations. Do not let the current regime exploit them to extend this crisis.”

The United States stands ready to work with all of its colleagues in the Security Council to pass a resolution in support of the Arab League’s proposals to restore peace to the country and uphold the rights of all of its people, Clinton said.

But she said the council’s failure to act will mean abandoning the Syrian people, spurning the Arab League and emboldening a dictator, and that “would compound this tragedy, and would mark a failure of our shared responsibility, and shake the credibility of the United Nations Security Council.”