France pushes Syria meeting at divided UN council

Reuters India ^ | Saturday, December 10, 2011 | Louis Charbonneau

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The U.N. Security Council agreed on Friday to France's request for a briefing on Syria's rights crackdown from the U.N. human rights chief, overcoming resistance from Russia, China and Brazil, Western envoys said.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, president of the Security Council this month, said Navi Pillay's closed-door briefing would probably take place on Monday.

He dismissed suggestions from Western envoys that Russia had opposed the briefing, although he acknowledged Moscow and others had reservations.

"We expressed a position, a concern, which also some other members of the Security Council had ... that there is a division of labor," he told reporters, adding that Russia believed the Security Council was "intruding on the affairs of the Human Rights Council."

The rights council is based in Geneva. Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa, which have resisted Security Council action on Syria, have argued that complaints about Syrian rights abuses should be dealt with in Geneva, not New York.

France, Britain, Germany and the United States have been pushing for the council to take up the issue of Syria again. Last month, Russia and China vetoed a European-drafted resolution that would have condemned Damascus' crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and threatened possible sanctions...

One Western diplomat told Reuters that Friday's closed-door discussions on whether Pillay should brief the council grew "very heated" at times. French Ambassador Gerard Araud had threatened to demand a "procedural vote" if the council could not agree on his proposal for Pillay to brief the council.

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Supporters of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad wave flags during a rally at al-Sabaa Bahrat square in Damascus, December 9, 2011. Credit: Reuters/ Stringer

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Brazil, China, India, Russia, Syria...

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Whoops, forgot ya.