UN meeting over Israeli-Palestinian conflict as violence continues in Syria

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to act within the "next few days" on U.N.-Arab League proposals to bring peace to the country where pro-democracy protests deteriorated into bloody turmoil.
   
"The Syrian government has failed to fulfill its responsibility to protect its own people and instead has subjected its citizens in several cities to military assault and disproportionate use of force," Ban said. "These shameful operations continue."

Commenting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ban Ki-moon said that he was extremely worried by a recent flare-up in violence between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

"I am gravely concerned at the latest escalation between Gaza and Israel and once again civilians are paying a terrible price," Ban told the U.N. Security Council. He said rocket attacks on Israeli civilians were "unacceptable" and urged Israel to "exercise maximum restraint."
   
The violence, which flared on Friday, has been following a familiar pattern in which militants launch rocket attacks and Israel carries out air raids in the Hamas-controlled enclave. But the bloodshed has usually ended after a few days with an informal truce.

The ministerial meeting, hosted by Ban Ki-moon, is expected to review efforts to get the Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiating table, but deep divisions remain and there is little hope of a breakthrough.
 
Libya's foreign minister will be in New York to brief the council, and Tunisia's foreign minister will speak by video conference. British Foreign Secretary William Hague will chair the meeting, and speakers will include Clinton, Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe.
 
In turn, Russia expressed deep concern on Monday about the situation in Syria where pro-democracy protests have deteriorated into bloody turmoil.
 
"We should draw serious conclusions regarding the situation in Syria. It remains a cause of grave concern for Russia and the whole international community," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the U.N. Security Council.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday of cynically launching new military assaults while meeting with U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan over the weekend.

"We reject any equivalence between premeditated murders by a government's military machine and the actions of civilians under siege driven to self-defense," Clinton told the U.N. Security Council.
   
"How cynical that, even as Assad was receiving former (U.N) Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Syrian Army was conducting a fresh assault on Idlib and continuing its aggression in Hama, Homs, and Rastan," she said.

Clinton said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must end his violence against anti-government demonstrators around the country before they can be asked to stop defending themselves. "First and foremost the Assad government has to end the violence," she said. 

On a a separate note, Clinton condemned the rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip into southern Israel and called on all sides to try to restore calm.
   
"Let me also condemn in the strongest terms the rocket fire from Gaza into Southern Israel, which continued over the weekend," Clinton said during an appearance on Monday before the U.N. Security Council. 

"We call on those responsible to take immediate action to stop these attacks.  We call on both sides - all sides - to make every effort to restore calm."

Russia, which is Syria's most powerful ally, and China have vetoed two Security Council resolutions which would have condemned President Bashar Assad's bloody crackdown, saying they were unbalanced and demanded that only the government stop attacks, not the opposition. Moscow accused Western powers of fueling the conflict by backing the rebels.

As for France, French Minister of Foreign Affairs Alain Juppe said that Syrian authorities must pay the price of their acts before the international judiciary. He called for providing the necessary circumstances to submit the issue to the International Criminal Court.

In a speech to the UNSC, Juppe urged China and Russia to listen to the Arabs’ voice and global conscience and to join the states that slam repression in Syria.

Meanwhile, United Nations investigators said on Monday that Syria's government has subjected civilians to "collective punishment" and its forces stand accused of carrying out executions and mass arrests in the devastated Homs district of Baba Amr,

Paulo Pinheiro, addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council on behalf of an independent panel, said that those who committed such crimes must face justice. He did not name any suspects.
   
Annan left Syria on Sunday without a deal to end the conflict, while regime forces mounted a new assault on rebel strongholds in the north.
 
At the start of Monday's Security Council meeting, the ministers are expected to approve a resolution extending the U.N. political mission in Libya for a year, with a mandate to support the government's democratic transition, help with elections, promote the rule of law and the protection of human rights, assist in demobilizing ex-combatants and eliminate the flood of weapons.
 
AP/Reuters