Dubai, Paris and Moscow: Qatar’s prime minister urged the international community on Thursday to speed up its search for a solution bringing a “peaceful transfer of power” in Syria, as he met French President Francois Hollande in Paris.
“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,” Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Al Thani told reporters after the talks in Paris.
The meeting came after reports of a new mass killing where Syrian opposition claims regime forces slaughtered at least 78 people including women and children, the chief of the UN monitoring mission said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 55 people were killed in Wednesday’s assault on the Al Kubeir area.
A transfer of power “is really our preferred solution” Shaikh Hamad said as he condemned President Bashar Al Assad’s regime for failing to follow through on UN-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 authorises member states to take “all necessary measures” to carry out specific UN Security Council decisions and can be used in some cases to authorise military action.
“This does not mean that another solution does not exist, but we must continue working to find a peaceful solution,” Shaikh Hamad said.
In Moscow, Russia said the killing was a provocation aimed at undermining Annan’s faltering peace plan.
But Moscow also said the tragedy must only commit all sides more firmly to the troubled peace plan and suggested that an end of Arab world support for the armed opposition would help prevent a repeat of such attacks.
“There is no question that certain forces, not for the first time, are using the most brutal and vile provocations to undermine the plan of Kofi Annan,” foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights blamed pro-regime militiamen for Wednesday’s attack in the central Hama region town of Al Kubeir.
The slaughter came just days after 108 people were killed in a two-day massacre in the central town of Al Houla that Western and Arab governments also blamed on a pro-government militia group.
Attempts to reach eyewitnesses and residents of the area were unsuccessful on Thursday, making the verification of what went on extremely difficult. The Syrian government keeps tight restrictions on journalists.
The statement claimed the killings were meant to put pressure on the Syrian regime ahead of a UN Security Council meeting.
British Prime Minister David Cameron urged concerted action from the international community against Al Assad’s regime following the latest reports.
He said that if the reports of the “brutal and sickening attack” are true, it adds further proof that the Al Assad regime is “completely illegitimate and cannot stand”.
Speaking during a visit to Norway, Cameron insisted more must be done to isolate Al Assad’s regime and show that “the whole world” wants to see political transition in Syria and condemns “absolutely” the Syrian regime.
— With inputs from agencies
