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NEW DELHI: India worked hard behind the scenes on Friday to dilute a Saudi Arabia-drafted UNGA resolution, which severely indicted Syria for the situation prevailing in the country, but finally abstained from voting after the draft could not be rid of reference to the July 22nd League of Arab States resolution that called upon Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to step down. The decision has further brought into focus India's growing contrariness with the Arab League over Assad's fate.
India was among the 31 countries that abstained from voting on the 'strongly-worded resolution'. Russia and China were among the 12 countries that voted against the resolution, but it still found overwhelming approval in the form of support from 133 nations.
Insisting that the government did not duck the issue by abstaining, sources indicated that India may still have gone with the majority but for the reference to the League of Arab States resolution, which called upon Assad to step down. The original draft, though, was tougher on Syria calling upon nations to impose sanctions on the war-ravaged country. "We said that no country is going to impose sanctions on the basis of a UN General Assembly resolution," said a source.
"Other countries too took this line and it was withdrawn but the reference to the League of Arab States resolution forced us to abstain. In fact, looking at it hypothetically, had it not been for this reference, we could have gone with the majority,'' he added. Despite its serious attempt to do a balancing act by not antagonizing the Arab League, it has not found common ground with them over Assad's fate. India is averse to any talk about regime change maintaining instead that the decision should be left to the Syrians only.
Unlike a Security Council resolution, UNGA resolutions are not legally binding. According to Indian officials, the resolution also failed to address the issue of violence being perpetrated by opposition groups and instead only focused on violence by government militia and other Assad supporters. While stressing upon oppression by Syrian authorities, the resolution only hints at violence by the other side on page 3 where it condemns "all violence, irrespective of where it comes from, including terrorist attacks''.
When asked about Saudi Arabia and Qatar arming Syrian rebels, a government source said that the "sophistication of weapons used by the rebels was very high" and that this is a very dangerous trend.
While India officially called for resolving the crisis through "dialogue and political processes" in its explanation of vote, government sources admitted that the fast deteriorating situation may no longer allow that. In the explanation of vote at the UN, India's permanent representative Hardeep Puri said that even though special envoy Kofi Annan had resigned, his efforts have put in place "a set of valuable documents, which, if implemented, can facilitate a political resolution of the Syrian crisis without any further bloodshed".
The Times of India on Mobile
India was among the 31 countries that abstained from voting on the 'strongly-worded resolution'. Russia and China were among the 12 countries that voted against the resolution, but it still found overwhelming approval in the form of support from 133 nations.
Insisting that the government did not duck the issue by abstaining, sources indicated that India may still have gone with the majority but for the reference to the League of Arab States resolution, which called upon Assad to step down. The original draft, though, was tougher on Syria calling upon nations to impose sanctions on the war-ravaged country. "We said that no country is going to impose sanctions on the basis of a UN General Assembly resolution," said a source.
"Other countries too took this line and it was withdrawn but the reference to the League of Arab States resolution forced us to abstain. In fact, looking at it hypothetically, had it not been for this reference, we could have gone with the majority,'' he added. Despite its serious attempt to do a balancing act by not antagonizing the Arab League, it has not found common ground with them over Assad's fate. India is averse to any talk about regime change maintaining instead that the decision should be left to the Syrians only.
Unlike a Security Council resolution, UNGA resolutions are not legally binding. According to Indian officials, the resolution also failed to address the issue of violence being perpetrated by opposition groups and instead only focused on violence by government militia and other Assad supporters. While stressing upon oppression by Syrian authorities, the resolution only hints at violence by the other side on page 3 where it condemns "all violence, irrespective of where it comes from, including terrorist attacks''.
When asked about Saudi Arabia and Qatar arming Syrian rebels, a government source said that the "sophistication of weapons used by the rebels was very high" and that this is a very dangerous trend.
While India officially called for resolving the crisis through "dialogue and political processes" in its explanation of vote, government sources admitted that the fast deteriorating situation may no longer allow that. In the explanation of vote at the UN, India's permanent representative Hardeep Puri said that even though special envoy Kofi Annan had resigned, his efforts have put in place "a set of valuable documents, which, if implemented, can facilitate a political resolution of the Syrian crisis without any further bloodshed".
The Times of India on Mobile
