Western and Arab leaders ramped up the pressure on Syria andIran at the United Nations, as US President Barack Obama vowed to keep Tehranfrom getting its hands on nuclear weapons. The United States, France and Qatarled the charge as the West and its allies attempted to use the UN GeneralAssembly to win support for tougher international action against the MiddleEast's twin pariah regimes.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon set the tone, condemningthe bloodshed in Syria, where the beleaguered regime is battling an armedrevolt and subjecting its citizens to what the UN peace envoy dubbed"medieval forms of torture." Under pressure from his domestic rivalsto take a tough stance, Obama said President Bashar al-Assad's regime "mustcome to an end so the suffering of the Syrian people can stop, and a new dawncan begin." The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, a keysupporter of the Syrian opposition, called for Arab military intervention."It is better for Arab countries themselves to intervene out of theirhumanitarian, political and military duties and do what is necessary to stopthe bloodshed," he told the General Assembly.
A US State Department official said that the United Stateswill soon announce an increase in its aid to the Syrian rebels, but would stillstop short of sending weapons and ammunition. And French President FrancoisHollande urged the United Nations to declare protected areas in "liberatedzones" under opposition control in Syria so that humanitarian aid could reachrefugees. Obama was also unequivocal on Iran, which is locked in a standoffwith the West over a nuclear program that Washington alleges is designed toproduce a weapon that could tip the balance of power in an already volatileregion.
Six weeks ahead of the presidential election, Obama is underpressure on the foreign policy front, with criticism of his handling of thekilling of US diplomats and claims he is not standing closely enough behindIsrael. His speech aimed to counter those claims from White House rival MittRomney and also renew his outreach to the Muslim world after two weeks ofanti-American violence triggered by an online video that insulted Islam. Obamasaid the Arab Spring would lead to improved democracy and living standards in aMiddle East region more in line with US values but, while he condemned thefilm, he insisted no insults could justify violence.
Many Muslim leaders, however, demanded international actionto stop religious insults, in a challenge to Obama's defense of freedom ofexpression. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, the world's mostpopulous Muslim nation, quoted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights assaying that "everyone must observe morality and public order."
Debate in New York in the run-up to the assembly focused onthe violence in Syria and the risk that the Iranian stand-off could lead to abroader conflict if Israel or the United States launched a pre-emptive strike.Ban spoke for many delegates when he called on world powers to put aside theirdifferences and unite behind a plan to pressure the parties to settle theirconflicts through negotiation.
The 15-nation Security Council has become paralysed bydeadlock over the 18-month-old war, which Syrian activists say has left morethan 29,000 dead.
