Clinton slams anti-Islam video as 'disgusting'

AP Photo

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday condemned an amateur anti-Islam film which has sparked violent Middle East protests, stressing that the US government had nothing to do with it.

"To us, to me, personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible. It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose, to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage," Clinton said.

"But as I said yesterday, there is no justification, none at all, for responding to this video with violence." Protests have erupted for three days running outside US diplomatic missions in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere by demonstrators who deem the low-budget movie "Innocence of Muslims" made in the United States as offensive to Islam.

US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed when heavily-armed extremists launched a sustained four-hour attack on the US mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi late Tuesday.

Condemning the violence, Clinton said at the launch of a strategic dialogue between the United States and Morocco that all "leaders in government, leaders in civil society or religious leaders must draw the line at violence." "Any responsible leader should be standing up now and drawing that line," she added.

"It is especially wrong for violence to be directed against diplomatic missions. These are places whose very purpose is peaceful to promote better understanding across countries and cultures."
(WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse)

China slams Clinton's remarks over Syria stance

AFP photo

China rebuffed on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's accusation that Beijing and Moscow have hindered the resolution of the crisis in Syria today, saying any attempt to "slander" China was doomed to fail.

Clinton urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's enemies meeting in Paris on Friday to make Russia and China "pay a price" for helping him to keep power in Damascus, remarks that were among Washington's toughest yet in 16 months of revolt in Syria.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said Clinton's comments were "totally unacceptable".

"On the Syria problem, China's fair and constructive stance and its contributions toward diplomatic efforts have attained the wide understanding and support of relevant parties in the international community," Liu said in a statement on the ministry's website.

"Any words and deeds that slander China and sow discord between China and other countries will be in vain."

In her comments to the Friends of Syria meeting, Clinton said the only way matters would change "is if every nation represented here directly and urgently makes it clear that Russia and China will pay a price because they are holding up progress - blockading it."

Russia and China have repeatedly used veto power at the U.N. Security Council to block calls for Assad to leave power.

The two countries say they are committed rather to the peace plan drafted by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan which proposes national dialogue. U.N. peace monitors effectively gave up on their mission last month after just weeks in Syria as it became clear there was no peace to monitor.

Liu reiterated Beijing's stance that its actions were in keeping with the U.N. Charter and "the norms governing international relations".

Russia hit back at Clinton's criticism on Friday, saying the Secretary of State's comments were "incorrect". (BEIJING - Reuters)

Russia, China will pay price for Syria: Clinton

The US adopts a hard line on Moscow and Beijing for objecting to action on Syria, while Russia says Clinton’s remarks are inappropriate

Russia and China must “pay a price” for blocking U.N. sanctions that might press Syrian President Bashar al-Assad into stepping down, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said July 6 in some of Washington’s strongest remarks yet on the crisis.

“The only way that will change is if every nation represented here directly and urgently makes it clear that Russia and China will pay a price. They are holding up progress, blockading it. That is no longer tolerable,” Clinton told the Friends of the Syrian People conference in Paris on July 6.

Clinton’s remarks were followed immediately by a reaction from Russia, which was not present at the Paris meeting. “I categorically reject the formulation that Russia supports Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the situation that has developed in Syria,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies.

“What the Russian Federation is engaged in is not supporting specific politicians or political figures in Syria, but in work that we hope will help create the important dialogue between the authorities and the opposition. … The issue is not supporting specific political figures or leaders, but putting the process of regulating the crisis on a normal political basis.”

Russia criticize Clinton’s remarks as ‘inappropriate’

“The statement is inappropriate,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov also told the Interfax news agency in an interview, saying the comment was not in line with the recent declaration signed in Geneva.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, present at the conference, called for pressure on countries that support the Syrian administration and urged the necessity of establishing a transitional government for the future of the country.

French President François Hollande urged stiffer sanctions against al-Assad and more support for the rebels. “Bashar al-Assad must go ... It’s in the interest of Syria, of its neighbors and everyone who wants peace in the region.” British Foreign Secretary William Hague told the conference those countries that failed to impose sanctions were allowing al-Assad’s forces to go on killing.

Clinton and Hague were among the 50 foreign ministers and delegates meeting in Paris. But Russia and China stayed away from a meeting they said was one-sided.

In its final statement on July 6, the Friends of the Syrian People called for a U.N. Security Council resolution backed by sanctions.

The meeting was seeking a resolution under the U.N. charter’s Chapter 7, including the threat of sanctions and diplomatic action in line with Article 41, which explicitly does not allow for use of armed force. Participants at the Paris meeting called on the U.N. Security Council to “adopt, under the United Nations Charter’s Chapter 7, a resolution that reaffirms envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point plan,” the final statement said. (Hurriyet Daily News)

Clinton's criticism over Syria 'inappropriate': Russia

EPA photo

Russia toady called 'inappropriate' U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's remarks at the Friends of Syria meeting that Moscow is holding up progress in solving the Syria conflict.

"The statement is inappropriate," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency in an interview, saying the comment was not in line with the recent declaration signed in Geneva (MOSCOW - Agence France-Presse)

Clinton says Russia, China must 'pay price' for aiding Assad

AFP photo

The defection of a Syrian general who is a personal friend of President Bashar al-Assad gave a huge boost to anti-government rebels as Western and Arab states met them in Paris on Friday to help prise Assad from power.

In some of the strongest U.S. remarks yet on a crisis that has divided the United Nations Security Council along Cold War lines, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Paris conference that Russia and China must "pay a price" for blocking U.N. sanctions that might press Assad into stepping down.

As she spoke, Manaf Tlas, a brigade commander in the Republican Guard who attended military college with Assad and fled to Turkey this week, was on his way to Paris, where his father, Assad's father's defence minister, has also taken up residence, a close family friend told Reuters.

There was no immediate sign that Tlas would throw in his lot with the rebels and an opposition source said he had no plans to attend Friday's meeting.

But his defection is the clearest signal yet that some in Assad's inner circle think his days in power are numbered, as an uprising that began in March 2011 with a groundswell of peaceful protest turns into a civil war with strong sectarian overtones.

While the lightly armed rebels are no match for Syria's large and well-equipped army, their hope lies in eroding loyalty and conviction within Assad's establishment to the point where it loses its hold on power.

Syrian armour pushed into the rebel-held northern town of Khan Sheikhoun on Thursday, activists said, adding 11 victims to a death toll dissidents and Western leaders put at over 15,000.

French President Francois Hollande urged stiffer sanctions against Assad and more support for the rebels at the start of a meeting of Western and Arab states who back the uprising.

"Bashar al-Assad must go," Hollande told a meeting of foreign ministers and senior diplomats from the "Friends of Syria" group. "It's in the interest of Syria, of its neighbours and everybody who wants peace in the region."

Clinton renewed Washington's call for a U.N. sanctions resolution, something that was twice blocked last year by the veto power held by Moscow and Beijing in the Security Council.

And she called for states to penalise Russia and China:

"I will tell you very frankly, I don't think Russia and China believe they are paying any price at all - nothing at all - for standing up on behalf of the Assad regime," Clinton said.

"The only way that will change is if every nation represented here directly and urgently makes it clear that Russia and China will pay a price, because they are holding up progress - blockading it. That is no longer tolerable."

Completing the trio of Western veto-holding powers on the Council, Foreign Secretary William Hague for Britain told the conference that counties which failed to impose sanctions were allowing Assad's forces to go on killing.

The Paris meeting will, among other things, focus on firming up sanctions and closing loopholes such as continued Greek purchases of Syrian phosphates, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told the newspaper Aujourd'hui en France.

Tlas, whose father Mustafa was defence minister under Assad's father for three decades, is a Sunni Muslim, from the majority community that has been the focus of the uprising against a ruling class rooted in Assad's minority Alawite sect. (PARIS/BEIRUT - Reuters)

Clinton: World may not succeed in Syria

From Jill Dougherty, CNN

There is no guarantee that a sweeping new international agreement on Syria will succeed in ending the conflict there, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conceded, as opposition activists said the number of dead had skyrocketed in recent months.

"There is no guarantee that we are going to be successful. I just hate to say that," Clinton told CNN.

But she expressed optimism that a new agreement hammered out Saturday would help ease President Bashar al-Assad out of power.

The first plan backed by Russia and China as well as the West, it calls for a transitional government as a step towards ending the 16-month uprising.

Opposition activists immediately criticized the deal as leaving open the possibility that al-Assad would remain in power.

"The new agreement provides vague language which is open to interpretation," the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said in a statement Sunday. "This provides yet another opportunity for the regime's thugs to play their favorite game in utilizing time in order to stop the popular Syrian Revolution and extinguish it with violence and massacres across Syria."

A spokesman for the Syrian National Council, a main political opposition group, similarly slammed the agreement.

"We are afraid that the decision of the Geneva convention might give signs and gestures to the Syrian regime that it is acceptable and a legitimate cover to continue killing the people, and committing more massacres," Muhammad Farmini told CNN.

"This gives the regime a permit to continue killing and spilling more Syrian blood," he said.

But Clinton said al-Assad and his inner circle would be excluded from any transitional government.

Both sides have to agree on the membership of the interim body, and Clinton said there was "no way anyone in the opposition would ever consent to Assad or his inside regime cronies with blood on their hands being on any transitional governing body."

"Assad will not be part of it," she said in an interview late Saturday in Geneva, Switzerland, after the deal was hammered out.
Kofi Annan, the joint special envoy for the United Nations and Arab League, invited diplomats from the U.N. Security Council and envoys from Turkey, the United Nations, the European Union and the Arab League to the global meeting in Geneva on Saturday.

Clinton said the Russians, who have long been al-Assad's most steadfast supporters, had finally decided to back a transition away from his rule.

"They have committed to trying," she said. "But they also admitted that they may or may not have enough leverage to convince not just one man, but a family and a regime that their time is over."

Bloodshed continued unabated in the wake of the international talks, with at least 47 people dying on Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Another opposition group, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, reported at least 20 deaths Sunday and said that more than half of the people killed since the Syrian crisis began 16 months ago were slaughtered in the past four months.

More than 14,000 people have been killed by the regime, according to tallies from opposition activists.

June was a particularly gruesome month, with 2,386 people killed compared to 1,196 in May, the LCC said.

The dead on Sunday include several people who died from injuries sustained in a blast at a funeral procession in Zamalka on Saturday, the group said.

"Dr. Jamal Tabarneen was martyred by the regime's army gunfire while he was helping in resuscitating the injured in Zamalka's explosion," the LCC said.

The international group meeting in Switzerland agreed that both the regime and opposition fighters should immediately adopt a cease-fire and implement Annan's six-point peace plan without waiting for the actions of others, Annan said.

The group also called for a transitional government.

Annan said it could include members of the current Syrian regime, making it theoretically possible that al-Assad will be a part of the transition.

But Annan pointed out it is the Syrians who will decide the make-up.

"I think people who have blood on their hands are hopefully not the only people in Syria," Annan said. "I think the government will have to be formed through discussion, negotiations, and by mutual consent. And I will doubt that the Syrians -- who have fought so hard for their independence, to be able to say how they're governed and who governs them -- will select people with blood on their hands to lead them."

The LCC said it was "gravely concerned" by what could happen in a transitional period with al-Assad's military and security forces.

There are "core conflicts between the Revolutionaries and Bashar al-Assad's pillars and symbols, whose hands are stained with blood and must be excluded from the transitional phase," the opposition group said. "No Syrian will accept a regime waiver of responsibility over crimes and violations against human rights."

The agreement in Geneva also calls on the Syrian government to release detainees and allow journalists access to the country. The right to peaceful demonstrations must be respected, Annan said.

Clinton said the U.N. Security Council should endorse the plan, thus allowing the possibility of sanctions against Syria if the requirements aren't met.

Russia, widely viewed as a key ally to the Syrian regime, said the agreement should not be interpreted as outside powers imposing a transitional government on the Syrians. That process must come from inside Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. (Geneva, Switzerland (CNN))

Clinton visits Azerbaijan amid border clashes

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, right, and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walk to meetings at the presidential Zagulba residence in Baku, Azerbaijan on Wednesday June 6, 2012. AP photo

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Azerbaijan on Wednesday for talks aimed at strengthening relations with the oil-rich state, amid a flare-up of violence on its border with enemy Armenia.

Clinton arrived after gunbattles on the ex-Soviet states' mutual border this week killed eight soldiers -- five Azerbaijanis and three Armenians -- in one of the deadliest outbursts of violence in months.

The neighbours are locked in a bitter unresolved conflict over Nagorny Karabakh, an Armenian-controlled enclave inside Azerbaijan that was the focus of a bloody war in the 1990s.

Although this week's clashes erupted well to the north of the disputed region, Clinton was expected to reiterate a call for both sides to end the violence.

"The use of force will not resolve the Nagorny Karabakh conflict and therefore force must not be used," she said during a visit to Yerevan on Monday, pledging to deliver the same message to Azerbaijani leaders in Baku.

Local media in both Azerbaijan and Armenia however said there had been further exchanges of fire on Tuesday night, although no casualties were reported.

After arriving in Baku, Clinton immediately went into talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at his palatial residence overlooking the Caspian Sea.

The United States is a co-chair with Russia and France of the OSCE Minsk Group, which was set up after the 1994 Karabakh ceasefire to help bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

But the conflict has remained unresolved for nearly two decades, leaving Armenia suffering economically due to closed borders with Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey, while Baku has grown richer on its Caspian Sea oil deposits.

The United States has sought to balance its relationship with both countries, pressed on one side by the large American Armenian community and Washington's strategic interests in the Caspian basin on the other.

Clinton planned to visit an oil and gas trade exposition being held in Baku, highlighting the $8 billion that US energy companies have invested in Azerbaijan since independence following the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Also expected to come up in her talks is Iran, which shares a border with Azerbaijan.

Although both countries are predominantly Shiite Muslim, there are political tensions between Azerbaijan's secular leadership and Iran's Islamic regime. (BAKU - Agence France-Presse)