Diplomats attending the U.N. General Assembly used the spotlight and worked the sidelines in an attempt to make headway toward resolving the Syrian crisis as a graphic video emerged Friday that underscored the consequences of failure to do so.
"What has the international community done to stop this carnage?" asked Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. "Literally nothing. We have yet to see a single effective action to save innocent lives."
The inability of the Security Council to act, he said, "encourages the Syrian nation to kill even more people."
Turkey is providing shelter for 90,000 Syrian refugees, but the rest of the world needs to do its share, Davutoglu said. "Our inability to act becomes a tool in the hands of despots and destructive regimes to demolish the cities, towns and villages, massacre civilians and make a mockery of the civilized world and the United Nations."
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle also slammed the U.N. Security Council for failing to end the violence.
World leaders working for robust action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime have hit a brick wall at the Security Council after Russia and China blocked tough resolutions.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow supports the right of people to determine their own destiny and to decide how they want to be governed.
"We believe it is particularly important to carry out those transformations in a nonviolent way and without outside interference," he said.
He accused those who insist on a cease-fire only by the Syrian government with encouraging the opposition.
"In doing so, they push Syria even deeper into the abyss of bloody internecine strife," he said.
"Russia resolutely condemns any violence, wherever it comes from, and is convinced that there is still an opportunity to undertake collective actions," he added.
But Westerwelle told the assembly that the "deadlock" in the body "must not continue."
"To this very day, the Security Council has failed to live up to its responsibility for people in Syria," he said.
The U.N. peace initiative this year, led by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, failed. But Westerwelle supported the efforts of his successor, Lakhdar Brahimi.
"Despite the escalating violence and despite the deadlock in the Security Council, we must not stop working on a political solution," the German diplomat said.
The Security Council's failures to take tough action has led dozens of Western and Arab nations -- including the United States, Australia, Canada and Turkey -- to form an initiative called the Friends of Syria. The group comprises dozens of countries working for regime change.
In addition to hosting a meeting of the group on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced $30 million for humanitarian aid and $15 million to unarmed opposition groups.
Here are the latest developments in the Syrian crisis.
Chemical weapons moved in Syria
The Syrian government has moved chemical weapons at various sites for security reasons, the U.S. defense secretary said Friday.

Comments