Will the UN get involved in Syria?

I've already stated my opinion about the UN; they are powerless, useless, and without influence. The members of the Security Council are at logger-heads on most issues, and nothing gets done.

I dident say that we ought to do away with the U.N.

but it sure could use some revisions just as the U.S. government could

If you cant see the sense in wanting both organizations to be more for the common good than for the rich and powerful than I feel sorry for you.

If one dosent acknowledge that they need revamping than how will we ever improve them.

Syria renews attack on Houla massacre site
Updated May 31, 2012 07:11:15/ABC News

Video: Nations expel Syrian diplomats after Houla massacre (7pm TV News NSW)
Related Story: Carr won't rule out military intervention in Syria
Related Story: Diplomats expelled as Annan tells Assad to stop the killing
Related Story: Witnesses describe Syrian massacre horror
Related Story: Security Council condemns massacre in Syria
Map: Syrian Arab Republic

Syrian forces have launched a fresh assault on the site of last week's Houla massacre, forcing villagers to flee heavy shelling in fear of more carnage.

Machine gun fire was followed in the afternoon by shelling that targeted homes near where more than 100 people were killed on Friday and Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The watchdog said smoke was seen billowing above the village as residents escaped to other towns in the region "for fear of a new massacre".

Syria's opposition called for UN observers to rush to the area to protect residents.

"The murderous regime is currently carrying out bombing of Houla ... using tanks and shells," the Syrian National Council, the main opposition coalition, said.

"The council calls on UN observers to travel quickly to Houla and put pressure on the regime to stop the bombing and protect civilians who are still there.

"People are calling in distress following the regime's brutal attack on their community, especially after the army's withdrawal of roadblocks, which usually signals the beginning of attacks." ...<cont>

You're welcome! Trying to ask a2k members on how the UN can improve is out the realm of reality; in other words, crap!

Syria rebels give government truce ceasefire deadline
31 May 2012 Last updated at 00:26 GMT/BBC News


The Free Syrian Army accuses the government of ignoring the UN-sponsored peace plan

The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) has given the government of President Bashar al-Assad a 48-hour deadline to observe a UN ceasefire plan.

The FSA's Colonel Qassim Saadeddine said if there was no response by Friday lunchtime the FSA would consider itself "no longer bound by the.. peace plan".

The plan calls on government forces to withdraw to barracks.

On Wednesday, UN observers confirmed the discovery of 13 shooting victims near the city of Deir el-Zour.

Col Saadeddine said in a video published online that the government must "implement an immediate ceasefire, withdraw its troops, tanks and artillery from Syrian cities and villages".

US congressman Keith Ellison tells BBC the international community has to act on Syria

"It should also allow immediate humanitarian aid to all affected areas and free all detainees... The regime should also enter into a real and serious negotiation through the United Nations to hand over power to the Syrian people," he went on.

All of these are provisions of the peace plan put forward by UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from neighbouring Lebanon.

The FSA is poorly armed and no match for the heavy weapons and tanks of the regime forces, our correspondent says.

But the UN has confirmed that the FSA continues to control significant parts of many towns and cities, as well as much of the countryside in some areas, he adds.

Further escalation

Speaking after a closed meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said a further escalation of the conflict in Syria is the likeliest scenario now, with it also spreading to other countries in the region.

"Members of this council and members of the international community are left with the option only of having to consider whether they're prepared to take actions outside of the Annan plan and the authority of this council," Ms Rice said.

Her British counterpart, Mark Lyall-Grant, said that a third element, including jihadists, was now active in Syria. He called them "spoilers".

Hopes of a new initiative over Syria have at the council have been dented by Russia and China.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Moscow was "categorically against any outside interference in the Syrian conflict" because it would "only exacerbate the situation for both Syria and the region as a whole".

A spokesman for China's foreign ministry reiterated Beijing's opposition to military intervention in Syria or forced "regime change".

Russia's foreign ministry added in a statement that the co-ordinated series of expulsions of Syrian diplomats from Western countries in response to the killing of 108 people in Houla last week was "counterproductive".

Turkey is also expelling all Syrian diplomatic staff from Ankara, but consular staff in Istanbul will remain.

In another development, Syria's honorary consul in California, Hazem Chehabi, resigned, saying he could not continue in his post after the "barbaric" massacre in Houla.

"The president has to be responsible for the actions of his own government. Either you're committing those atrocities, and therefore you're guilty, or you're not preventing them from happening," Mr Chehabi told National Public Radio.

'Appalling and inexcusable'

The UN confirmed on Wednesday the discovery of 13 men's bodies near the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, with their hands tied behind their backs, some apparently shot in the head.

UN mission chief Maj Gen Robert Mood said he was "deeply disturbed" by the "appalling and inexcusable act".

Footage shows the bodies of men with their hands bound

Amid the reports of continuing violence, it appears Mr Annan's talks with President Bashar al-Assad and opposition figures in Damascus on Tuesday have had no immediate impact on the ground.

The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on Syria on Friday looking into the killings, officials said.

One of the organisations monitoring the violence, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 65 "martyrs" had died in incidents across Syria on Wednesday.

As many as 15,000 people have been killed since the revolt against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad began in March of last year.

108 civilian deaths in Houla ... many of them children (during a ceasefire agreement) doesn't tell you something, hawkeye?

What on earth would the rebel fighters gain from doing that, apart from alienating the general population whose support they need?

Local residents are widely reported as laying the blame on Assad's troops

Why would they not be truthful?

"If the Islamic Republic was not present in Syria, the massacre of civilians would have been twice as bad," General Ismail Qa'ani, deputy-commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Qods Force, told Tehran's ISNA news agency.

Iran, he added, "Had physically and non-physically stopped the rebels from killing many more among the Syrian people

Middle Eastern politics expert Dr. Jeremy Salt says figures about numbers of deaths, even from official sources, differ too much to be reliable.
“In its report, the Human Rights Council said 4,000 [people have been killed in Syria to date]…but there was no information about where they got that figure from,” he said. “A few days later, Navi Pillay, who is the UN Human Rights Commissioner, stood up in the Security Council and said 5,000 – and the figure echoes around the world,” he told RT.

“I think it lodges in the popular imagination as 5,000 people being killed by the Syrian government – by the security forces, by the military – whatever. Whereas in fact, I don’t think there’s any doubt at all that a large number of military, of civilians have been killed by armed gangs and by defectors,” Salt explained.

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We know that the Syrian regime is brutal. We know that it faces an armed uprising which it is determined to crush. The opposition may be accidentally providing inaccurate information, it may be deliberately exaggerating or making things up out of whole cloth. It may be telling the truth in some or even all instances. It is also necessary to take into account other factors, like the shabiha militia, which supports the regime but has its own agenda. The bottom line is that without journalists verifying, it’s not journalism. And it’s not worth rushing to report one-sided claims under pressure to scoop the competition instead of waiting for more reliable information.

Would Western media have accepted reports from Vietnam (via entities with names like the Vietnamese People’s Human Rights Committee, or Vietnamese Network to Protect Civilians) that contained unverified and inadequately-documented or poorly-detailed reports of American atrocities? Don’t think so.

Given what is now emerging about behind-the-scenes covert involvement of outside forces in creating and stoking uprisings in other countries, don’t we need and deserve a closer look at all of this—including those very effective, neatly lettered, English-perfect signs that always catch the cameras?

The fact that many stories from Syria include a plea for “international intervention” (presumably of an armed nature) means this is not just an academic issue. Because, unless we get a handle on what is really going on, things are destined to get a lot worse.