US 'drafting new UN resolution' on Syria, which may win Chinese support

GlobalPost

The United States, with the help of France, is drawing up a new UN Security Council resolution on Syria that will focus on securing humanitarian access to the cities worst hit by violence, Agence France Presse reported, citing diplomats.

One diplomat told AFP the resolution would also “indicate that the government is the cause of the crisis."

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Reuters said it has spoken to diplomatic sources who explained the text was not yet a formal draft resolution - and has not been shown to the full security council, but rather “a small circle of like-minded countries."

China has indicated support for international efforts to send humanitarian aid to Syria, though it is unclear if China and Russia will support the new move at the UN.

In a phone call Tuesday to Arab League head Nabil Elaraby, the Chinese foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, called for a cease fire in Syria, and political dialogue on a “reform plan,” the official Xinhua news agency reported.

"The international community should create conditions for this, and extend humanitarian aid to Syria," Yang said.

If put to a full Security Council vote, the draft resolution would mark the third attempt by the West to seek UN backing on a solution to the Syrian crisis, with the last two documents vetoed by Russia and China.

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Meanwhile at a meeting on Tuesday, the UN estimated that more than 7,500 have been killed in almost a year of unrest in Syria, the BBC reported.

Several journalists, including the French freelance reporter Edith Bouvier, are still understood to be awaiting evacuation from the central, restive city of Homs.

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