AFP, Brussels, 4 Oct 2011 – The European Union and Brazil on Tuesday expressed ‘grave concern’ at the situation in Syria while urging the United Nations to remain engaged.
In a joint statement issued the same day European nations were to seek a vote on a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria’s crackdown on protests, EU leaders and visiting Brazilian President Dilma Roussef said the two sides ‘expressed grave concern’ at the current situation in Syria.
‘They agreed on the need to continue urging the Syrian authorities to put an end to the violence and to initiate a peaceful transition to democracy.
‘They stressed the importance that the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council remain actively seized of the matter.’
A day after Washington stepped up sanctions against Damascus, Britain, France, Germany and Portugal have dropped the word ‘sanctions’ from their draft text in a bid to win over council opponents.
But Russia on Tuesday called the latest draft of the resolution condemning the Syrian crackdown as ‘unacceptable’.
The resolution calls for ‘targeted measures’ against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for a crackdown that has killed 2,700, according to UN estimates. It would impose sanctions if Assad failed to comply within 30 days with instructions to end violence and impose reforms.
In a separate statement in Brussels, EU president Herman Van Rompuy said that in his talks with Roussef he ‘drew attention to the alarming developments in Syria and the need for the Security Council to rapidly adopt a strong resolution to show that the world will not tolerate the unacceptable violence by the regime.’