Russian draft offers hope of UN Syria resolution

Russia offered a new, beefed-up draft resolution on the violence in Syria to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, and Western countries said for the first time they were willing to negotiate over it.Although Western envoys said the Russian text was too weak, their readiness to work on it offered a chance for the Security Council to overcome its deadlock and issue the 15-nation panels first resolution on Syrias bloody nine-month-old crackdown on opposition protesters.The council has released just one formal statement, split between Western countries harshly critical of Syria on the one hand, and Russia, China and nonaligned countries on the other that have refused to put the main blame on Damascus for the violence.Western diplomats believe a firm resolution backed by Syrias long-standing ally Russia could make a real difference to a crisis that U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said this week had so far led to more than 5,000 civilian deaths.Russia and China vetoed in October a West European draft resolution that contained a threat of sanctions. Russia has twice circulated its own draft, most recently in September, but Western countries dismissed it, saying it made an unacceptable attempt to assign blame equally to government and opposition.The draft circulated unexpectedly by Russia on Thursday to the council expands and toughens Moscows previous text, adding a new reference to disproportionate use of force by Syrian authorities.The draft, obtained by Reuters, also urges the Syrian government to put an end to suppression of those exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.Russias U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters it takes into account the developments of the past few months, and which considerably strengthens all aspects of the previous text, with regard to the need to stop violence, with regard to the need to uphold human rights, with regard to expediting reforms.Its a fairly complex document but clearly Syrian Authorities are singled out in a number of instances, added ChurkinChurkin said Russia did not believe both sides in Syria were equally responsible for violence, but acknowledged it called on all parties to halt violence and contained no threat of sanctions, which he said Moscow continued to oppose.