Send a message to Syria - Annan

International envoy Kofi Annan today urged the UN Security Council to send a message to the Syrian government and the opposition that there will be “consequences” if they do not comply with demands for an immediate ceasefire, a UN diplomat said.

Russia and China, key allies of Syrian President Bashar Assad and veto-wielding council members, have blocked repeated attempts by the United States and its European allies to even threaten “consequences” – a diplomatic code word for sanctions

The diplomat said the council should insist on implementation of its resolutions which included a strong endorsement of his six-point peace plan.

That plan calls for an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons from populated areas by the Syrian government to be followed by an opposition cessation of hostilities.

The UN sent a 300-strong unarmed observer mission for 90 days to oversee the cessation of violence and monitor implementation of the Annan plan. It was forced to withdraw from key conflict areas because of the escalating fighting and the council must decide what to do about extending its mandate which expires on July 20.

Another UN diplomat said UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told the council the ceiling of 300 observers should remain and the UN should decide on their deployment. A third diplomat said the peacekeeping department plans temporarily withdraw half of them, on 48-hour standby to return if conditions change.

On the eve of Annan’s briefing, Russia circulated a draft resolution to Security Council members that would extend the UN observer force in Syria but refocus its activities on trying to achieve a political solution to the conflict.

Britain, France, Germany, Portugal and the United States have also been drafting possible texts for a new resolution but were waiting to hear what Annan had to say. Diplomats said a Western text will likely be circulated either later tonight or Thursday.

Annan briefed the council on his talks with Assad in Damascus and his visits to Iran and Iraq.

He told reporters in Tehran and Baghdad yesterday that Assad agreed to a plan to contain the bloodshed in the most violent areas of Syria step by step and then expand the operation to the whole country.

“I believe that if everyone works on it seriously then it could work,” Annan said in Baghdad. “We are also ... going to discuss this with the opposition on the ground.”

But several UN diplomats raised concerns about this new approach, citing the Security Council’s unanimous endorsement of Annan’s six-point peace plan and questioning whether targeting places of extreme violence would mean targeting opposition strongholds.

The conflict in Syria has defied every international attempt to bring peace, and there was no sign that the plan Annan would be a breakthrough. Although the Assad government’s crackdown has turned the Syrian president into an international pariah, he still has the support of strong allies including Russia, Iran and China.

There is little support for military intervention of the type that helped bring down Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, and several rounds of sanctions by the US and European nations, and other attempts to isolate Assad have done little to stop the bloodshed. More than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, according to Syrian activists.

In Moscow today, a prominent Syrian opposition leader said Russia’s resistance to international intervention in the conflict was bringing misery and “suffering” to the violence-torn country.

Two Syrian opposition delegations visited Moscow this week, raising hopes that Russia could be pushed to accept Assad’s removal but Syrian National Council head Abdelbaset Sieda said he saw “no change” in Moscow’s stance after meeting with officials including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“The Syrian people are suffering because of Russia, because of the position it has taken, because of its veto in the UN Security Council,” Sieda said at a news conference. “The current regime uses Russian weapons against its own people.”

Sieda called for intervention by the UN and said no dialogue with the regime was possible until Assad was removed.

Russia strongly opposes international intervention and says that if Assad goes, it must be as the result of dialogue.

At a conference in Geneva last month, Russia insisted that any political transition must have the “mutual consent” of both Assad’s government and the opposition, essentially handing a veto on the peacemaking process to both sides.

Lavrov today repeated Russia’s support for non-intervention, and insisted that any solution would have to be decided by “Syrians themselves,” and not by any foreign power.