UNSC examines Syria humanitarian draft text, sponsors to go all the way

The Security Council late Tuesday examined for the first time a Western-Arab draft resolution that would demand immediate humanitarian access to the besieged areas all over Syria, at a time France insisted it is ready to "go all the way" and put every council member "before its responsibilities." French Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters following the closed-door meeting "we are determined to go all the way," hinting that the sponsors will push for a vote even if that means a Russian veto. "I think every country will take its own responsibilities," he added.Australia, Luxembourg, and Jordan, representing the Arab group, on Tuesday formally circulated among all council members the draft text. Later in the day, the council met to discuss it at the ambassadorial level, including Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin who had repeatedly failed to attend the council permanent members' recent meetings to discuss it.Following Tuesday's meeting, Churkin told reporters, "We had a good exchange of the challenges of the humanitarian situation in Syria." Asked what he thought of the draft today, Churkin did not answer. He was very talkative the day before when he said the draft "is not what we need now, especially in the context of Geneva-2 negotiations. It is not going to be adopted, I can tell you." Russia and China vetoed three previous resolutions, shielding the Assad regime from any criticism or sanctions. Araud said the international community is facing "such a tragedy that we have to try to do something. Actually, we would have wanted to have a much stronger text. We have made a real effort to try to have a consensus in the council." Speaking in French, Araud said Russia is not opposed to the hypothesis of a resolution and the draft "can be amended" in an attempt to allay Russia's concerns.Churkin believes the draft is politicized and one-sided, because it mainly blames the regime for all the atrocities being committed in Syria.Araud said that since the council issued its presidential statement on October 2 calling for concrete measures to make humanitarian access in Syria easier, "nothing significant has been done. The situation on the ground has worsened. We are facing the worst humanitarian tragedy since the genocide in Rwanda in 1994." He predicted that the discussions of the draft would take a long time, because "we are just starting to go through the details of the text. We should be moving quickly but it will depend on the momentum and on whether everybody is engaging in the negotiations." US Ambassador Samantha Power said in a statement, "the Assad regime's disregard for the welfare of the Syrian people is obvious and the need to remove the roadblocks to humanitarian access is beyond urgent." The council "needs to speak with one voice in the interest of the innocent men, women, and children of Syria whose lives are hanging in the balance. Every day the council remains silent, we let down the Syrian people, and we fail to uphold our role as guardians of international peace and security," she added.The draft is calling for ending the siege of the cities where civilians are trapped; demanding an end to indiscriminate shelling by the regime; the demilitarization of hospitals, schools, and civilian infrastructures; a humanitarian pause to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, and allowing access of humanitarian aid through Syria's borders.It also warns of sanctions on entities and individuals if they don't abide by the demand within 15 days of the adoption of the resolution.It would further welcome in its preamble the pledges totaling USD 2.5 billion at last month's Kuwait-2 Donor Conference for Syria, and call on member states and regional organizations to ensure the "timely" disbursement of those pledges and continued support in line with the growing humanitarian needs.UN Aid Chief Valerie Amos is scheduled to brief the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria on Thursday.Over nine million Syrians are affected by the three-year conflict. According to the Syrian opposition, over 130,000 people were killed since March 2011 when the crisis in Syria began with peaceful protests that quickly escalated into a civil war.