UN head: Syrian crisis necessitates body reform

Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser The UN and Arab League joint special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, will travel to Damascus on March 10 for talks with Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad's regime. Arab League secretary-general Nabil Al-Arabi said: "Kofi Annan told me that Syria will receive him on March 10 and that he would arrive in Cairo on March 7."
The head of the UN General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, earlier called for radical reform of the international organisation, saying the stalemate over Syria shows it is 'not fit for purpose.
Describing the current system as outdated, Nasser said that the ability of the five permanent members of the Security Council to block action was no longer credible, and could be dangerous when it stood in the path of peace.
There was outrage last month when Russia and China vetoed a resolution which gave support to an Arab League plan paving the way to the resignation of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad.
Nasser claimed that failing to pass the resolution had encouraged the Assad regime in its bloody crackdown.
It was wrong that the world was blocked from taking action "because of the disagreement of one or two members," he said.
Nasser called for reform to allow the UN to act despite the opposition of some on the Security Council, if there was overwhelming support from the Assembly.
After the resolution was vetoed in the Security Council last month, the General Assembly voted by a substantial majority to back the Arab League plan.
However, while the Assembly vote was said by officials to have "sent a message" to the Assad regime, it was not legally binding, meaning it had little effect on the ground in Syria.
Meanwhile, Syrian ally Russia will meet with foreign ministers of Arab states to discuss the Syria crisis in Cairo on March 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had said on Monday.
The talks come amid growing fury in the region at Russia’s refusal to condemn its Soviet-era ally. Russia shares extensive trade links with Syria, including the sale of arms.
Lavrov’s talk with Judeh came one day after Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal urged Moscow to “advise” Assad’s regime to stop its deadly crackdown against dissent.
China also said on Monday it will send an envoy to Syria in a fresh bid to help staunch violence there.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Li Huaxin, the country's former ambassador to Syria, will visit there for two days from Tuesday, promoting a six-point plan that Beijing issued on the weekend as the basis of a solution to the violence.
"Although conditions are extremely complicated, and the situation remains tense, China still maintains that a political solution offers the fundamental escape from the Syrian crisis," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin.
Moscow and Beijing are also wary of supporting any measure which could be seen as sanctioning the use of foreign force to bring about regime change, as happened with a UN Security Council resolution on Libya last summer.
But in an interview with The Independent, Nasser said he could not understand how all nations could not sign up to the latest Security Council resolution because it was aimed at protecting Syrian civilians from further bloodshed.
The United Nations claims security forces have killed more than 7,500 civilians since the revolt against the Assad family’s four-decade rule began in March last year.