West seeks UN vote condemning Syria

UNITED NATIONS — Western powers pressed the UN Security Council to condemn Syria's deadly crackdown on opposition protests in the face of strong opposition from Russia and China.

Britain and France have drawn up a new resolution which demands that President Bashar al-Assad end the violence and lift the siege of protest cities. It also calls for an arms embargo on Syria.

But there is no threat of sanctions and France's envoy said that there was no intention to launch Libya-style military action.

Meanwhil hundreds of residents fled the flashpoint town of Jisr al-Shughur in northern Syria on Wednesday, fearing bloody reprisals for the alleged killing earlier this week of 120 police and troops.

Fears that the regime could be about to exact brutal revenge for what it said was a "massacre" on Monday by "armed terrorists" appeared to galvanize efforts at the United Nations.

Britain, France, Germany and Portugal have submitted the resolution and say they are ready to risk a veto by Russia which reaffirmed its opposition to action by the 15-member Security Council.

"We believe that the world should not stand silent in the face of the outrages that are happening and we therefore hope that we will be able to move to vote on the resolution in coming days," said Britain's UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant.

French ambassador Gerard Araud called the resolution an attempt to send a "political message" to Assad that it is time to carry out reforms.

He said in an interview with French television: "We all know, and it has been said by the French authorities, that we are not going to get engaged in military operations against Syria."

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Ban Ki-moon to Run for Second Term as UN Chief Backed by Asia

South Korea’s Ban Ki-moon said he will run for a second five-year term as secretary-general of the United Nations, a bid that’s likely to result in his re-election within a month as Asia’s two biggest economies backed him.

“It has been an enormous privilege to lead this great organization,” Ban, 66, said yesterday at a news conference at UN headquarters in New York. “If supported by the member states, I would be deeply honored to serve once more.”

Ban said he expressed his intention in a letter to the governments of the 192 UN member nations and would meet with their envoys within the next two days. The Security Council would first vote to recommend his re-election and the General Assembly would then vote on whether to give him a second term that would begin on Jan. 1, 2012.

Ban is almost assured of re-election because Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S., the five permanent members of the Security Council, have signaled their support and no opposition candidate has emerged. The eighth UN secretary general, Ban would be the fifth to win election to a second term.

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