Deadlock on Syria: Likely crimes against humanity, but no plan of action

The UN’s top human rights official declared Monday in New York that international inaction on the intensifying crisis in Syria likely is enabling the regime to commit crimes against humanity.

But in Washington, senior officials of the United States and Turkey, two countries that have called publicly for President Bashar al-Assad to cede power, seemed incapable of making any progress toward developing a plan of action, humanitarian or otherwise.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who also met with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and White House national security adviser Thomas Donilon.

Secretary Clinton announced she will be attending a “friends of the people of Syria” meeting in Tunis Feb. 24. That meeting, hosted by the Arab League, is expected to address ways of boosting humanitarian assistance to Syria’s besieged civilian population. The Arab League is also proposing an even more problematic UN peacekeeping mission for Syria.

But several hours of meetings did not appear to produce the “road map” for the international community’s involvement in Syria – particularly in addressing a mounting humanitarian crisis – that Mr. Davutoglu had spoken of at the outset of his Washington visit last week.

After the meetings, Clinton said the US would continue to work on tightening international sanctions on the Assad regime and will look for ways to increase delivery of humanitarian assistance in the 10 days before the “friends of Syria’ meeting.

But she offered little hope that the Arab League’s proposal for a peacekeeping force in Syria could attain the Security Council support it would require. “There are a lot of challenges to be discussed as to how to put into effect all of [the Arab League’s] recommendations, and certainly the peacekeeping request is one that will take agreement and consensus,” she said.

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