(Adds Morocco giving Russia, China draft resolution)
UNITED NATIONS Jan 26 (Reuters) – The Arab League
chief and the Qatari prime minister will present an Arab peace
plan for Syria to ambassadors in the U.N. Security Council in
New York early next week, the council president said on
Thursday.
South Africa’s U.N. Ambassador Baso Sangqu told reporters in
New York that the meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday
afternoon. League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby and Qatari
Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who heads the
League’s Syria committee, will brief the 15-nation council.
South Africa holds the council’s rotating presidency this
month.
Western diplomats said the briefing will set the stage for a
new showdown with Russia over its ally Syria and a Western-Arab
draft resolution that backs the Arab League call for Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad to transfer power to his deputy to set
up a unity government and prepare elections.
The Security Council could vote as early as next week on the
new draft resolution, which delegates from Britain and France
are crafting in consultation with Qatar, Morocco, the United
States, Germany and Portugal, envoys said. The new draft is to
replace a Russian text that Western diplomats say is too weak.
Russia, however, says its draft remains in play. Western
diplomats said they hope to negotiate with the Russians and
incorporate elements of the Russian draft into the Western-Arab
text to satisfy Moscow and avoid a Russian veto.
The Moroccan delegation was expected to meet with Russian
and Chinese diplomats to present them with the latest version of
the Western-Arab draft resolution, diplomats told Reuters. The
Moroccans, they said, will then present it to the full 15-nation
council on Friday.
The draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, calls for a
“political transition” in Syria. It does not call for U.N.
sanctions against Damascus, something Moscow has said it could
not support.
Russia, together with China, vetoed a European-drafted
resolution in October that condemned Syria and threatened it
with sanctions over its 10-month crackdown on pro-democracy
demonstrators. It is unclear whether Russia is ready to wield
its veto once again to block council action on Syria.
Several Western envoys told Reuters that Russia might find
it difficult to veto a resolution that is simply intended to
provide support for the Arab League.
(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau in New York and Edmund Blair in
Cairo; editing by Christopher Wilson)
