Al Arabiya , 29 May 2012 – Syria’s main opposition coalition called on Tuesday for a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the “use of force” and welcomed the expulsion of top diplomats from several Western countries.

After economic sanctions and the expulsion of top diplomats from several Western countries, the U.N. Security Council should “adopt a resolution under Chapter VII (of the U.N. Charter) allowing the use of necessary force in order to put a stop to the genocide and the murders committed by the regime’s militias,” the Syrian National Council said.

The SNC also welcomed the expulsion of “the regime’s ambassador in Paris and its representatives in Australia,” adding that it “expects other countries to follow suit.”

France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia said they were expelling the Syrian envoys from their capitals in a move that underlined Assad’s diplomatic isolation.

“Ending diplomatic relations and imposing economic sanctions on the regime is an essential part of the response to the horrific massacres that the regime is carrying out,” the statement said.

Earlier on Tuesday, peace envoy Kofi Annan expressed “grave concern” to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad after last week’s massacre of 108 civilians, many of them children, in the town of Houla.

The killings in Houla drew a chorus of powerful condemnation from around the world, with the United Nations saying entire families had been shot dead in their homes.