Arab League 'holds key to Syria'

Friday, 10 February 2012 9:45 AM

By Alex Stevenson Follow @alex__stevenson

British diplomats should concentrate their efforts on the Arab League to advance international pressure on Bashar al-Assad's regime, the chair of the Commons' foreign affairs committee has told politics.co.uk.

Conservative MP Richard Ottaway dismissed the impact of sanctions on Syria and questioned the fruitfulness of further pressure on Russia or China in an interview for politics.co.uk's weekly podcast.

Instead he called on Foreign Office officials to intensify efforts to get the Arab League to unite in favour of a course of action - potentially military intervention - which the international community could rally around.

"The niceties of diplomacy are failing here, this is getting into a hard-nosed business," he said.

"The people we have to have most contact with are the Arab League. If you go back to Libya, it was the intervention of the Arab league, calling on the UN to act, which was decisive. I think it needs a more decisive move from the Arab League."

Britain is pursuing a range of political, economic and military initiatives to intensify pressure on what foreign secretary William Hague has called Assad's "doomed regime".

Mr Ottaway said he supported the government's approach but pressed officials to reassess their approach if little progress is made.

He stopped short of backing military intervention but acknowledged pressure was growing on the international community to act.

"We have heavy sanctions being imposed but they're having little impact," Mr Ottaway added.

"I think the EU, Nato and the Arab League really ought to sit down together and say 'can we take this any further at the moment?'

"There are still a number of nations in the world who are very hesitant about the policy of intervention - they tend to be the more autocratic regimes like China and Russia.

"I think the world is moving on now and as globalisation really takes hold and international communications get a grip, we can see what's happening on the streets of Homs and Damascus daily, hourly, we have to accept there is a norm by which we conduct life on this planet and that norm is not being followed in Syria at the moment."

Veteran Labour backbencher David Winnick said he acknowledged that steps had to be taken to end the violence suffered by the Syrian people, but warned that the pursuit of a UN resolution was undermined by the way in which resolution 1973 had been used to justify the use of military force against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

Mr Winnick told politics.co.uk: "The action which was taken by some western powers including Britain over Libya meant they played right into the hands of Russia and China, who clearly didn't want a unanimous resolution on the lines proposed.

"The international community has a legitimate right to do everything it possibly can to stop the slaughter, but in doing so it shouldn't be a repeat of what happened with the western powers using UN resolution 1973 to bring about regime change."

Pressure continues to grow on western policymakers as the death toll mounts in Syria. In Homs a rebel stronghold is being attacked by artillery and tanks, while in Aleppo two explosions at security compounds have been reported.

Tags:
• arab spring
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• david winnick
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• middle east
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• richard ottaway
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• syria