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Clinton says US "disappointed" with China, Russia on Syria

Arab World Materials 5 September 2012 12:06 (UTC +04:00)
The United States is disappointed by the failure of China and Russia to agree to tougher sanctions against Syria, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday, dpa reported.
Clinton says US "disappointed" with China, Russia on Syria

The United States is disappointed by the failure of China and Russia to agree to tougher sanctions against Syria, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday, dpa reported.

"It is no secret that we've been disappointed with Russia's and China's actions blocking tougher UN Security Council resolutions, and we hope to continue to unite behind a real path forward to end the violence in Syria," Clinton told reporters.

Diplomats were "discussing additional ways" to end the violence in Syria, she said following talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

"The best course of action remains to unite the United Nations Security Council," Clinton said.

China and Russia, veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council, have blocked UN efforts to intervene in the 17-month conflict beyond the deployment of UN observers during a failed ceasefire plan launched in April.

Yang said he had spoken by telephone to UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi recently and told him that China "fully supports his mediation efforts" in Syria.

"We support a period of political transition in Syria," Yang said at a joint press conference with Clinton.

"We also believe that any solution should come from the Syrian people," he said. "It should not be imposed from outside."

Clinton said the US would continue to cooperate with the Syrian opposition and "work for the day Assad goes, because we are convinced that he will."

She called the conflict a "threat to peace and stability in the entire region."

"And the longer it goes on, the greater the risk that it spills over," she said, adding that it had already affected Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.

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