EU, Arabs seek UN assembly condemnation of Syria

German officials revealed that Britain, France, Germany, with the support of several Arab states, will call for a UN General Assembly vote soon to condemn Syria for nine months of violence against anti-government protesters.       

Germany’s UN mission said that French, British and German delegations met with some Arab delegations at the U.N headquarters on Wednesday after the Arab League had given Syria three days to halt deadly violence against its people.    

“There was strong support to go ahead with the draft resolution,” he said. “Some Arab delegations even expressed their intention to co-sponsor the resolution.”    

The German official refused to disclose the name of these states while other officials stated that Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Morocco and Kuwait were considering co-sponsoring the non-binding resolution on Syria.     

The draft UN resolution “strongly condemns the continued grave and systematic human rights violations by the Syrian authorities.”     

Among these violations are “arbitrary executions, excessive use of force and the killing and persecution of protesters and human rights defenders, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment of detainees, including children,” said the draft obtained by Reuters.