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Friday, June 8, 2012

Arab League's letter to Security Council on Syria: Act under Chapter 7

From left: Kofi Annan, Special Envoy on Syria; 
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser,
 President of the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly;
 Nabil el-Araby, Secretary General of the Arab League;
 and Mutlaq M. Al-Qahtani, Al-Nasser’s Chef de Cabinet;
 meet before a joint briefing to the General Assembly on Syria. 
7 June 2012 (Click on picture)
النص الرسمي لقرار المجلس الوزاري العربي بدعوة مجلس الأمن الى التصرف بموجب الفصل السابع لحماية المدنيين في سورية. أنقر هنا. 

Letter dated 4 June 2012from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Observer Mission of the League of Arab States to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council
I have the honour to transmit herewith a letter addressed to you from H.E. Nabil Elaraby, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, regarding resolution No. 7507 concerning the situation in Syria, dated 2 June 2012, which was adopted by the Council of the League of Arab States at its extraordinary session held at the ministerial level in Doha (see annex).
Pursuant to Article 54 of the Charter of the United Nations, I should be grateful if you would arrange for the present letter and its annex to be circulated as a document of the Security Council.
 (Signed) Mohamed El Kafrawi
Chargé d’affaires

Annex to the letter dated 4 June 2012 from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Observer Mission of the League of Arab States to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council
     I have the honour to transmit herewith resolution No. 7507, dated 2 June 2012, adopted by the Council of the League of Arab States at the ministerial level, concerning developments in the situation in Syria. The resolution calls upon the Security Council to take forthwith all the necessary measures to protect Syrian civilians and impose a complete cessation of all acts of violence and crimes committed against the Syrian people. The international observers in Syria must be granted all the powers necessary to enable them to undertake the mandate that has been delegated to them, and the plan of the Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States must be implemented immediately and in full, within a specific time frame.
I hope that you will take the action that you deem to be appropriate with regard to the circulation to Security Council member States of the resolution which is annexed hereto, and that it may be considered an official document of the Security Council.
Accept, Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

(Signed) Nabil Elaraby

Secretary General
Enclosure

Developments in the situation in Syria

The Council of the League of Arab States, meeting at the ministerial level, at an extraordinary session that was held in Doha on 2 June 2012,
Having considered the memorandum of the General Secretariat,
Being guided by resolution 554, which was adopted by the twenty-third League of Arab States summit, which was held in Baghdad on 29 March 2012,
Recalling the resolutions it has adopted and the statements it has issued in that regard, the most recent being resolution No. 7503, adopted at the extraordinary session of 26 April 2012,
Recalling also the statements issued in that regard by the Arab Ministerial Council on the Situation in Syria, the most recent of which was issued on 17 April 2012,
Recalling further the relevant United Nations resolutions, the most recent of which were Security Council resolutions 2042 (2012) and 2043 (2012),
Condemning the Hula massacre in the Syrian governorate of Homs, in which scores of innocent civilians, including children and women, lost their lives,
Taking note of the statement issued by the Security Council on 27 May 2012 on attacks in Syria, which stated that such outrageous use of force against civilian population constitutes a violation of applicable international law and of the commitments of the Syrian Government; and of the resolution in that regard that was adopted by the Human Rights Council on 1 June 2012,
Confirming its commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria,
Decides:
1. To condemn the violations and crimes that continue to be committed against Syrian civilians by Syrian Government regular and irregular, or Shabiha, forces, in flagrant breach of that Government’s undertaking to implement immediately and in full the plan of the Joint Special Envoy and Security Council resolutions 2042 (2012) and 2043 (2012).
2. To stress the need to empower the Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry to perform the mandate it was given on 1 June 2012 to conduct an inquiry in order to establish who had been responsible for planning, perpetrating and covering up the massacre in Hula and bring them to justice for their gross violations of international humanitarian law.
3. To underline the need for compliance with the following resolutions of the Council of the League: No. 7444 of 22 January 2012 and No. 7438 of 12 November 2011, which called for the Arab States to recall their ambassadors from Damascus: the latter resolution was considered binding on all States. To underline also paragraph 1 (d) of resolution No. 7446 of 12 February 2012, in which it was decided to halt all forms of diplomatic cooperation with the representatives of the Syrian regime in international organizations and conferences and in States, and to call upon all States that are concerned for the Syrian people to keep pace with Arab measures in that regard.
4. To call upon the Security Council to take forthwith all the necessary measures to protect Syrian civilians and impose a complete cessation of the bloodshed and all acts of violence and crimes committed against the Syrian people. The international observers in Syria must be granted all the powers necessary to enable them to provide civilians with protection and end the gross violations and crimes that are being committed against them.
5. To demand that the Syrian Government renounces its policy of using the security solution, in order to permit the immediate and complete cessation of all acts of violence and killing; guarantees the right of peaceful demonstration, with a view to realizing the demands of the Syrian people for reform and change; and undertakes to implement, immediately and in full, all the Council resolutions concerning the Syrian crisis and, in particular, No. 7444 of 22 January 2012, No. 7446 of 12 February 2012, and No. 554, which was adopted in Baghdad on 29 March by the twenty-third summit of the League of Arab States; the relevant United Nations General Assembly resolutions and, in particular, 66/253; and all six points of the plan of the Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States, Mr. Kofi Annan.
6. To call upon all the relevant parties to cooperate closely with the Joint Special Envoy in the furtherance of his duties; to stress the need for the Government of Syria to comply with the nature and terms of reference of the mandate of the Envoy and his team, given that he is the Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States; and to condemn the Government’s refusal to receive Mr. Nasser al-Qudwa, the Deputy Special Envoy.
7. To request the management of the Arab satellite Arabsat and the Egyptian satellite company Nilesat to take the measures necessary to halt the transmission of Syrian official and other satellite channels.
8. To call upon all the opposition parties to overlook their differences, undertake their national responsibilities and respond immediately to the efforts exerted by the General Secretariat with a view to convening, as expeditiously as possible, a meeting at League Headquarters in Cairo that will include all those Syrian parties; and to request the Secretary General to continue his consultations and communications in that regard, in cooperation and coordination with the Special Envoy and in consultation with the relevant parties, with the aim of addressing the Syrian crisis and beginning the political process that will determine the steps to be taken during the interim period, including the formulation of ideas on the facilitation of the peaceful transition of authority.
9. To request the Government of Syria to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid, underlining the need to ensure that such aid reaches all those who need it, without obstruction or delay, and to find a mechanism for coordinating the efforts of the United Nations and its organizations and agencies with those of other organizations and donor States and with the relevant neighbouring States. To request the General Secretariat, the ministerial councils, the funds and donor States to coordinate their endeavours in order to enable those States to continue to provide the services necessary to relieve the Syrian people in their territory.
10. To call upon the Security Council to shoulder its responsibilities under the Charter of the United Nations and take the measures necessary to ensure that all six points of the plan of the Joint Special Envoy, Mr. Kofi Annan, is implemented forthwith and in full, within a specific time frame. Recourse should be had to Chapter VII of the Charter and its provisions regarding complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.
11. To request the Secretary General to transmit the present resolution to the Security Council and the General Assembly and other relevant parties.
12. To remain seized of the matter.

Resolution No. 7507, extraordinary session of 2 June 2012

-----------------------------------

Paragraph 10:

– With regard to the present resolution, the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria reiterates

the position which was set out in the resolution that was adopted by the extraordinary meeting of the Council of the League of Arab States at the ministerial level on 26 April 2012. – The Republic of Iraq has reservations as to the content of this paragraph and, in particular, to

the phrase “Recourse should be had to Chapter VII of the Charter”. – The Lebanese Republic affirms its position, which requires it to disassociate itself from the resolutions concerning developments in Syria.

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