West surprised with Russia’s tougher stance on Syria

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia surprised Western diplomats on Thursday when it put forth a draft resolution in the United Nations Security Council taking a harder line on violence in Syria.

Moscow, which has billions of dollars of contracts and investments tied to the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, has thus far been an obstacle to Western attempts to toughen sanctions on Damascus.

But with the rising death toll in Assad's nine-month crackdown on protesters jumping by some 1,000 deaths in just two-weeks according to UN Human Rights officials, Russia seems to want to appear proactive.

Russia's draft condemns the violence from both sides, but includes a reference to "disproportionate use of force by Syrian authorities."

It does not, however, call for the sanctions Western officials have been pushing for. In October, Russia and fellow veto-wielding China voted against a European draft resolution that threatened sanctions.

According to Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin the text "singles out Syrian authorities" numerous times - which has raised hopes some sort of consensus on Syria can be found.

Western nations rejected two previous Russian drafts they said unacceptably attempted to assign blame equally to the government and the opposition.

While diplomats from the west hailed Moscow's shift as "extraordinary" they nonetheless said it hadn't gone far enough and "clearly needs lots of amendments."

The Assad family has held power in Syria for four decades, but is now embattled as it faces both an enduring protest movement and growing insurgency by organized army defectors.

There have been widespread fears the country is at the tipping point of civil war as members of the anti-government Syrian Forces killed 27 security personnel in and around Daraa on Thursday. Observers say it is the deadliest such attack yet.

Analysts note, however, that Moscow could simply be going through the motions as Assad's regime approaches the point of collapse to protect its investments. Officials in both Jerusalem and Washington have described the fall of Assad's regime as "inevitable."

Some 5,000 Syrian civilians have been killed by forces loyal to Assad in the past nine-months, UN officials say.

Syrian authorities claim an additional 1,100 security personnel have been killed by opposition fighters, who they describe as "terrorists" seeking to topple Assad's regime, Israel National News reported.