UN draft resolution on Syria to demand humanitarian aid

UN draft resolution on Syria to demand humanitarian aid Valerie Amos, the UN's Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, has been refused entry into Syria.The Guardian liveblog quoted Amos as saying, according to a post by Foreign Policy magazine's Colum Lynch: "I am deeply disappointed that I have not been able to visit Syria, despite my repeated requests to meet Syrian officials at the highest level to discuss the humanitarian situation and the need for unhindered access to the people affected by the violence."
According to the BBC's UN correspondent Barbara Plett, Russia is encouraging Syria to allow the UN's Under Secretary to visit the country.
Heavy fighting broke out on Wednesday near the main rebel stronghold of Baba Amr in the city of Homs when Syrian troops began a ground assault, opposition sources said. Tanks have also been seen amassing outside Homs.
The military reportedly shelled the area heavily on Tuesday and overnight before the ground attack started.        
A Syrian official told AP that Baba Amr would be "cleaned" within hours.
The United States, backed by the UK, is drawing up a new draft UN Security Council resolution on Syria demanding humanitarian access to protest cities where thousands have been killed, diplomats said Tuesday.
If put to a vote it would be the third time Western nations have tried to get a Security Council resolution on the 11 month old crisis.
Britain, France and Germany, with Arab support, took the lead on the last two resolutions, which were vetoed by Russia and China.
"This resolution will concentrate on humanitarian access to the cities, but it will indicate that the government is the cause of the crisis," one diplomat said.
"At the moment there are just tentative contacts on the resolution," another Security Council diplomat said, confirming work on the outline. "It has not been sent to the whole council and we don't know when this will happen."
The United Nations says that more than 7,500 people have been killed in Syria since the eruption nearly one year ago of popular protests against the Assad family's 40-year rule.
Western nations hope that focusing on the humanitarian crisis would persuade Russia and China not to use their powers as permanent members of the 15-member council to veto any resolution.
The two powers blocked the last two attempts, saying the resolutions were aimed only at overthrowing Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday that a resolution on a "humanitarian ceasefire and access for humanitarian aid" was under discussion at the Council.
"I solemnly appeal to Russia and China that they do not block this new resolution at the Security Council," Juppe said at the French national assembly.
Newly appointed Syrian liaison Kofi Annan is to discuss the Syrian situation with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The former UN chief said he would hold a series of consultations in New York until Friday and then leave for Cairo to meet Arab League secretary-general Nabil Al-Arabi.
The earlier resolutions had specifically sought to condemn Assad for the violence and had hinted at further action, which had hardened opposition by Russia and China.
On Wednesday, China state media reported that Beijing has told the Arab League that international humanitarian aid should be allowed into Syria.
"The international community should create favourable conditions in this regard and provide humanitarian aid to Syria," the state Xinhua news agency said, quoting remarks by Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi during telephone talks with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.
Yang, who also held talks with his counterparts in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Algeria this week, called for the fighting to stop and for the international community to provide humanitarian aid, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Work on the new draft started after the Friends of Syria meeting in Tunis last week, diplomats said. Western and Arab foreign ministers attended the meeting but Russia and China stayed away.
Following the last veto, on February 5, the UN General Assembly passed a virtually identical resolution to the blocked Security Council draft. But the non-binding assembly vote carried less weight than that of the council.
In the meantime, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Assad could be classified as a war criminal, while the White House warned that sending arms to opponents of Assad might help armed outfit Al-Qaeda.
Activists claims as many as 104 people were killed in the shelling of opposition strongholds by Syrian forces on Tuesday, including 35 in Halfaya in Hama and 26 others in another attack committed by Syrian forces in Baba Amr.
Local Coordination Committees (LCC) said the Syrian troops had stormed Deraa and launched a wide scale military campaign in Deir Ezzor.
The White House said Tuesday that Al-Qaeda’s efforts to take advantage of the violence in Syria means it was not time to send arms to opponents of Assad.
“Without getting into assessments of our intelligence capabilities, I would simply say that we are aware of the fact that Al-Qaeda and other extremists are seeking to take advantage of the situation created by Assad’s brutal assault on the opposition,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney, according to AFP.
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri recently expressed support for the Syrian rebels.
As parts of Homs continue to be besieged, terrified residents were enduring dire conditions, without proper supplies of water, food and medicine, activists said.
The latest bombardment of Baba Amr was the heaviest so far, activists said, adding tanks from an elite armored division led by Assad’s brother Maher had moved into Homs overnight.
A wounded British photographer managed to escape from Homs, but the fate of French reporter Edith Bouvier is not clear.
Paul Conroy had been among several foreign journalists trapped in Baba Amr, where Marie Colvin, a veteran war correspondent also with the Sunday Times, and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed in a bombardment on February 22.
“There are credible reports that the death toll now often exceeds 100 civilians a day, including many women and children,” UN Under-Secretary-General for political affairs Lynn Pascoe told the UN Security Council. “The total killed so far is certainly well over 7,500 people.”
Syria’s UN ambassador in Geneva, Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui had earlier stormed out of the UN Human Rights Council after calling on countries to stop “inciting sectarianism and providing arms” to Syrian rebels.
He said foreign sanctions were preventing Damascus from buying medicines and fuel. The European Union imposed additional punitive measures on Tuesday.