ARAB NEWS
Friday 16 November 2012
...Lavrov (click here) met with Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and other foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh but failed to reach common ground on how to end the bloodshed that has claimed more than 38,000 lives in Syria.
Lavrov said that the atrocities committed in Syria were from all sides and must stop....
...The Syrian issue was not listed in the agenda of the meeting when the meeting was planned two months ago.
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled Al-Khalifa requested a UN decision to stop atrocities in Syria and has stated that the division in the Security Council has exacerbated the Syrian conflict. Sheikh Khaled reiterated the stance of the GCC that Assad did not have any legitimacy to rule Syria.
Both the Russian and the Bahrain foreign ministers have condemned the escalation in Gaza where an Israeli airstrike killed Hamas military chief Ahmed Jaabari.
Lavrov arrived in Riyadh for talks with his Arab counterparts in the Gulf on Wednesday to try to narrow down differences on the conflict in Syria....
The international community is so upset with Russia over Syria there are reforms being considered, but, Russia states it will not give up the veto power of the five permanent members.
03:39 16/11/2012
NEW YORK, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russia (click here) is ready to consider any rational UN Security Council reform proposal, except those cancelling veto right for permanent members, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said on Friday.
The UN Security Council currently has 15 member states. Five of them - Russia, US, China, UK and France - are permanent members with powers to veto any council decision.
"Ideas that infringe on exclusive rights of permanent council members, such as the historically formed veto right, are inadmissible for us. It should be kept in mind that this mechanism is an important instrument that encourages Security Council members to search for balanced solutions,” the Russian envoy said during General Assembly debates on a Security Council reform.
“The issue of Security Council reform cannot be solved arithmetically, by taking this or that reform model to a vote to receive the required two thirds of from the General Assembly members,” he went on....
