Russia: Yemen plan OK if people back it

Russia would accept a Yemen-style power transition in Syria if people decided that, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said yesterday, the latest statement seemingly aimed at distancing the Kremlin from President Bashar Assad. The United States is seeking Russia’s support in getting Assad to step aside, but Mikhail Bogdanov said the president’s fate was “not a question for us” but for the Syrian people. “Application of the so-called Yemen scenario to resolve the conflict in Syria is possible only if the Syrians themselves agree to it,” Bogdanov said, according to the Interfax news agency. “The Yemen scenario was discussed by the Yemenis themselves. If this scenario is discussed by Syrians themselves and is adopted by them, we are not against it.” Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Assad to hand over power and leave his country, condemning a massacre near the town of Hama that opponents have blamed on his supporters as “unconscionable.” Clinton said the United States was willing to work with all members of the UN Security Council, which includes Russia, on a conference on Syria’s political future as long as it started with the premise that Assad gave way to a democratic government. “Assad must transfer power and leave Syria,” Clinton told a news conference in Istanbul after meeting foreign ministers from Arab and Western nations to discuss counterterrorism. “The regime-sponsored violence that we witnessed again in Hama yesterday is simply unconscionable. Assad has doubled down on his brutality and his duplicity and Syria will not, cannot be peaceful, stable or certainly democratic until Assad goes.” United Nations observers have been prevented from reaching the village of Mazraat Al-Qubeir, near Hama where anti-Assad activists say Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to the president massacred at least 78 villagers, the head of the monitoring mission said yesterday. Clinton urged the international community to unite behind an “achievable” plan and said Washington was willing to cooperate with any state as long as they agreed that Assad had to cede power. “We are prepared to work with any country, including all members of the UN Security Council and we will do so, so long as any such gathering starts from the basic premise that Assad and his regime must give way to a new, democratic Syria.” Clinton said she would send her special adviser on Syria to Moscow today to discuss with the Russian government the need for political transition in Syria. Qatar’s prime minister urged the international community to speed up its search for a solution bringing a “peaceful transfer of power” in Syria, as he met French President Francois Hollande. “We must speed up our search for a solution to maintain the country’s stability and equally there must be a plan for a peaceful transfer of power,” Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani told reporters after the talks in Paris. A peaceful transfer of power “is really our preferred solution” Sheikh Hamad said as he condemned Assad’s regime for failing to follow through on United Nations-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan. “In the past the Syrian government has always agreed with the proposals that were made and then worked to make them fail,” he said. “We need for Russia and China to agree” to a solution, he said, reiterating support for invoking Chapter Seven of the UN Charter to back the Annan peace plan. The chapter authorizes member states to take “all necessary measures” to carry out specific UN Security Council decisions and can be used in some cases to authorize military action. “This does not mean that another solution does not exist, but we must continue working to find a peaceful solution,” Sheikh Hamad said.