Hague calls on Russia to help end carnage in Syria

The situation in Syria resembles Bosnia in the 1990s, Foreign Secretary William Hague said yesterday as he warned time was running out to stop the killings in the country.

Mr Hague said it was now up to Russia to use its leverage with President Bashar Assad’s regime to bring an end to the brutal violence in Syria.

He told Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News the continued political and trade isolation of Syria was the second best option. What was needed was a united way forward, he said.

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Asked whether the Government had ruled out military intervention, Mr Hague said: “I think we don’t know how things are going to develop. Syria is, as I said in the last couple of weeks, on the edge of a collapse or of a sectarian civil war so I don’t think we can rule anything out.

“But it is not so much like Libya last year, where of course we had a successful intervention to save lives.

“It is looking more like Bosnia in the 1990s, being on the edge of a sectarian conflict in which neighbouring villages are attacking and killing each other.

“There is an increasing commonality of analysis with Russia. The Russians are concerned about that scenario.”

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He said the UK and Russia agreed that President Assad did not have to be in charge in Syria but a way forward could not be found while the violence continued. Russia now had to use its “leverage” to ensure the Syrian regime ended the violence, he added.

Mr Hague said he “welcomed in principle” the Russian proposal for an international conference on Syria, but warned it must “lead to a change and not just buy time for the regime to kill more people”. He said the way forward was to adopt the peace plan of former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan.

But he said it would be hard to see how Iran could attend the conference, which is one of the demands of Russia, as it had already given Syria technical support and advised the regime how to suppress protests.

The British Government has already provided £8.5m towards helping alleviate the “appalling” humanitarian situation, he said.

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Mr Hague added: “International unity, behind an actual plan of action for transition in Syria, is, as I say, the only way to bring the killings to an end.

“Every other solution to the Syrian crisis involves a lot more death.

Meanwhile, Syrian government forces pounded areas in the central province of Homs yesterday in a renewed push to regain control of rebel-held territories, and activists said at least 38 people were killed in shelling there over the past 24 hours.

The assault focused on the town of Qusair, near the border with Lebanon, where activists reported at least six people died yesterday alone.

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Three others died in shelling of the town of Talbiseh, north of Homs city, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“The mortars came down on Qusair by the dozens,” said Abu al-Hoda, a Qusair-based activist. He said women and children have been huddled for days in basements of apartment buildings, too fearful to come out.

On Saturday, 29 people died in violence across Homs, according to activists.

Also yesterday, Syrian forces unleashed a new round of heavy shelling and sent reinforcements to a mountainous area near the coastal city of Latakia where hundreds of rebels have set up base and which has also been the scene of fierce fighting in recent days.