U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Russia on Thursday that its refusal to sanction UN action against Syria could see the outbreak of a civil war in the Middle Eastern country.
The Russians "are telling me they don't want to see a civil war. I have been telling them their policy is going to help to contribute to a civil war," she told students on a visit to the Danish capital of Copenhagen.
"The Syrians are not going to listen to us," she added. "They will listen maybe to the Russians, so we have to keep pushing them."
United Nations Security Council veto-wielding members Russia and China have twice vetoed UN sanctions against Syria. Moscow accuses the West of a pro-rebel bias and says it is trying to bring about regime change in Damascus.
The Kremlin has also criticized proposals by Western powers to arm the rebels, saying this would merely prolong the conflict.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this week that “certain countries” were attempting to use Friday’s massacre in the Syrian town of Houla as a “pretext” for a military operation against Assad’s forces, which have been partly armed by Russia. Lavrov also accused the head of the foreign-based opposition, the Syrian National Council, of attempting to “incite a civil war.”
Over 100 people, around a third of them children, were killed in Houla by what the West says were forces loyal to embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russia says government troops used artillery and tanks against the town, but has not ruled out that many of the killings were carried out by rebels as a “provocation” ahead of a visit by UN peace envoy Kofi Annan.
Syria denies its troops were involved and says the massacre was a terrorist plot aimed at undermining the regime.
Clinton also said that the lack of a UN mandate for action in Syria meant the current hostilities there “could morph into a civil war in a country that would be riven by sectarian divides, which then could morph into a proxy war in the region.”
"Remember you have Iran deeply embedded in Syria -- their military are coaching the Syrian military,” she went on." We know it actually could get much worse than it is.”
Clinton’s comments came after U.S. ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said on Wednesday that military intervention by the international community in Syria without UN approval was an increasingly likely option.
Over 9,000 people have been killed in clashes between the government and opposition forces in Syria since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, according to UN estimates.
