Annan, U.N. secretary-general from 1997 through 2006, was appointed by his successor Ban Ki-moon and Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby on Thursday after the U.N. General Assembly last week called for naming an envoy to push an Arab peace plan that asks Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside.

University of Notre Dame professor George Lopez said the choice of the Ghanian statesman over the other main candidate, former Finnish President and fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari, was “a bold choice.”

“Mr Assad has already been visited by high level diplomats – foreign ministers of Turkey and Russia, for example, and Arab League officials and he has been unresponsive,” he said. “It is significant that Kofi is a level higher who can – and will – look Assad in the eye and speak some truth to Assad’s power.”

Annan has no vested interest on either side of the conflict, he said, making it difficult for anyone to claim he has an agenda other than securing an end to Syria’s 11-month crackdown on anti-Assad demonstrators that has killed thousands of civilians and brought the country to the brink of civil war.

In Stanley Meisler’s 2007 biography of Annan, the only reference to Assad and Annan conversing is a 2002 telephone call in which the U.N. chief urged Assad to vote in favor of a Security Council resolution on the return of U.N. weapons inspectors to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

Assad, a strong ally of Saddam, dropped his objections and joined the other 14 council members to vote for the resolution.

During his time at the helm of the United Nations, Annan successfully mediated a number of conflicts, including Nigeria’s border dispute with Cameroon over control of the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula. Annan persuaded Nigeria to accept a World Court ruling that awarded it to Cameroon.

After leaving the world body, Annan helped negotiate an end to violence in Kenya that killed 1,220 people after the African nation’s December 2007 election.

But the escalating conflict in Syria, which the United Nations says has killed over 5,400 civilians, will likely prove much more difficult than Kenya or the Nigeria-Cameroon dispute.

FACES MAJOR HURDLES

Western diplomats say the United States and Europe appeared to favor Ahtisaari, who oversaw negotiations on Serbia’s former province of Kosovo, which seceded in 2008. But they added that Western capitals had no problem with the choice of Annan.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner described Annan as an “outstanding choice.” U.N. spokesman Eduardo del Buey said Annan was selected for “the high esteem in which he’s held in the international community, and his impeccable knowledge” of the region.

One of the chief political hurdles Annan will have to confront is a deadlocked U.N. Security Council. Russia and China twice joined forces in a double veto of resolutions condemning the Syrian crackdown and calling for an end to the fighting.

It remains unclear whether Annan can persuade Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, widely expected to return to the presidency after elections next month, to stop shielding Assad, whom Moscow sees as a key ally in a country that hosts Russia’s only warm-water naval port outside the former Soviet Union.

Annan will also have to confront the fact that some states are not only turning a blind eye to efforts to arm Syria’s opposition but are openly supporting it. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Feisal said at a “Friends of Syria” meeting in Tunisia that arming the rebels was “an excellent idea.”

Anne-Marie Slaughter of Princeton University said Annan can only succeed in getting a political settlement that ends the conflict if there’s a “credible threat of the use of force against Assad absent a deal.”

“Annan is only likely to succeed – a long shot under the best of circumstances – if the Russians use his presence as a cover for pushing very hard on Assad and his followers behind the scenes,” she said.

Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi was also pessimistic about Annan’s chances of success: “Frankly I doubt it,” he said, adding that Assad’s government was “still too strong, (and the) opposition too weak and divided.”

U.N. diplomats who followed Ban’s search for an appropriate envoy said his priority was to find an Arab, but that this was not possible in the end. Late last month, Elaraby said he was in talks with prominent Arabs, including Egyptian diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei, about becoming an Arab League envoy.

Earlier this week, a senior Western diplomat in New York said ElBaradei was not in the running for the post, though it was not clear whether this was because the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency was not interested or because of opposition from certain countries.

ARAB LEAGUE DIVIDED

ElBaradei, like Annan, is a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Several Western diplomats said privately that there was little enthusiasm in the West for ElBaradei, who they feel strove to undermine a U.S. and European push for U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

Another reason for choosing a non-Arab, diplomats said, is that the Arab League is itself divided between Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which support arming the rebels and toppling Assad, and others who fear that ousting Assad would spark sectarian violence that spills over into Lebanon and Iraq.

The late U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke once famously referred to Annan as “the international rock star of diplomacy.”

The soft-spoken diplomat, however, ran afoul of the United States in 2003 when he described the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as “illegal.” In 2006, Annan said he feared he would end up being remembered only for the oil-for-food program for Iraq, saying blame for that financial scandal was misdirected.

But allegations of U.N. mismanagement of the $64 billion Iraqi humanitarian program, which Annan said were “exploited to undermine” the United Nations, were not the only criticisms Annan faced during his long U.N. career.

The force commander of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, Romeo Dallaire, described in a book how Annan, then head of U.N. peacekeeping operations, took no action on Dallaire’s warnings about an impending massacre of Tutsis and moderate Hutus or his urgent request for more troops.

If Annan fails in Syria, diplomats and analysts say, Western and Gulf Arab countries may decide that all diplomatic avenues for resolving the crisis at the negotiating table have been exhausted – which in U.N. vocabulary is a prelude to war.

Lopez said black spots on Annan’s record like oil-for-food would not impede his work as the U.N.-Arab League envoy.

“Oil-for-food comments might be made mockingly by Syrians, but they will be of no relevance here,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn in Washington; editing by Todd Eastham)

Ban, who was asked by the U.N. General Assembly last week to appoint the envoy, told Reuters in an interview that he hoped to select an Arab who would represent both the United Nations and the Arab League.

The U.N. chief was speaking after Russia, which voted against the assembly resolution and has vetoed Security Council action on Syria, signaled it would support the dispatch of a U.N. envoy to Syria for humanitarian purposes.

The United Nations says at least 5,400 people have died in an 11-month crackdown by Syrian security forces on protesters seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian government forces killed more than 60 people on Tuesday in assaults on villages and an artillery barrage in the restive city of Homs, activists said.

Ban said that since the non-binding assembly resolution was passed on Thursday he had spoken daily by telephone with his Arab League counterpart Nabil Elaraby and would meet him in London on Wednesday, but had not yet selected the envoy.

“We identified certain persons but I am still in the process of contacting those people, their availability,” he said.

Ban said he wanted to see the envoy start work “as soon as possible” but did not think that would happen by a major international meeting planned for Friday in Tunis of so-called Friends of Syria, backed by Western powers and the Arab League.

He said he had been trying to find a candidate from the region “because my understanding is that the Arabs want to have some ownership. I think that is understandable. I support that.” But he said a candidate from elsewhere could be chosen if an Arab envoy could not be found.

Russia said this week it would support sending humanitarian aid to Syria. “We suggest that the Security Council members tell the U.N. Secretary-General to send a special envoy to Syria to reconcile the issues of providing safe delivery of humanitarian shipments,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Tuesday.

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said on Monday that Moscow was preparing to make proposals in the Security Council on humanitarian relief for Syria.

The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, the only international organization deploying aid workers in Syria, said on Monday it was in talks with the authorities and opposition fighters for a ceasefire to bring aid to civilians.

‘THE IMMEDIATE TASK’

Ban said the new envoy would need to tackle the Syrian situation in a comprehensive way. “In addition to humanitarian (issues), one needs to discuss all political issues. But the immediate task would be humanitarian at this time,” he said.

The U.N. chief said he believed a political solution was still possible in Syria and would be one of the tasks the new special envoy would have to address.

Ban discussed Syria in Vienna last week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “I urged the Russian government to demonstrate their influence over the Syrians to stop violence and allow United Nations humanitarian (workers) to have access there,” he said.

Russia – a long-standing political ally of, and arms supplier to, Damascus – has so far blocked Security Council action on Syria, saying proposed resolutions fail to blame government and opposition equally for the violence. It made the same criticism of the resolution in the assembly, where there are no vetoes.

Russia said on Tuesday it would not attend the Tunis meeting because the only Syrian representatives would be from the opposition, not the government. [ID:nL5E8DL0TV]

Ban said he expected the meeting to call for an end to the violence in Syria, which he has repeatedly denounced as appalling, but it was not yet decided whether it would produce a specific initiative.

The U.N. chief declined comment on whether a referendum on a new Syrian constitution, which Damascus says it plans to hold on Sunday, would be credible. The referendum would lead to multi-party elections within 90 days.

Western officials and Syrian dissidents have dismissed the plan, saying a valid election cannot take place amid bloodshed.

Ban said that as part of a political solution, a referendum “will be also one of the political elements. But at this time there should be complete ceasefire by both sides.”

(Editing by Will Dunham)

The resolution, similar to one Russia and China vetoed in the Security Council on February 4, received 137 votes in favor, 12 against and 17 abstentions, though three countries said their votes failed to register on the electronic board.

Russia and China were among those opposing the resolution, which was drafted by Saudi Arabia and submitted by Egypt on behalf of Arab states. Unlike in the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly, but its decisions lack the legal force of council resolutions.

“Today the U.N. General Assembly sent a clear message to the people of Syria – the world is with you,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said in a statement.

“An overwhelming majority of U.N. member states have backed the plan put forward by the Arab League to end the suffering of Syrians,” she said. “Bashar al-Assad has never been more isolated.”

The resolution said the assembly “fully supports” the Arab League plan aimed at halting Syria’s 11-month crackdown on anti-Assad demonstrators and urges U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a special envoy to Syria.

It also condemns Damascus for “widespread and systematic violations of human rights” and calls for the withdrawal of Syrian forces from towns and cities. The United Nations says more than 5,400 civilians have been killed in the uprising.

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari rejected the resolution, telling the assembly it was part of a plot to overthrow Syria’s government and allow the “terrorist” opposition to take over the country.

“We have deep concerns vis-a-vis the real intentions of the countries that have co-sponsored this draft, particularly that these countries are leading a political and media aggression against Syria,” he said.

Those countries, Ja’afari said, are providing “all media, financial and political support to the armed terrorist groups and securing them coverage in international fora.”

NEW SECURITY COUNCIL MOVE?

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the resolution “reflects the worrying trend … to attempt to isolate the Syrian leadership, to reject any contact with it and to impose an external formula for a political settlement.”

Earlier this week, Arab countries rejected proposed Russian amendments to the resolution that would have sought to blame Syria’s government and opposition equally for the violence.

Western diplomats said before the vote that a large majority in favor of the resolution would increase the pressure on Assad to comply with the Arab League plan, and would highlight the isolation of Russia and China on the issue.

Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Bolivia were among other countries that voted against the resolution and whose delegates voiced support for the Syrian government.

France and other Western powers have suggested that they would like to make a third attempt to persuade Russia not to block action on Syria in the Security Council. But U.N. diplomats say there are no signs Moscow is prepared to allow the 15-nation panel to pass any condemnation of Syria.

Before their February 4 double veto, Moscow and Beijing, which oppose what they see as foreign interference in Syria, also knocked down a European-drafted resolution in October that would have condemned Damascus and threatened it with sanctions.

British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said Thursday’s vote “sent a clear signal of the international community’s condemnation of the Syrian regime’s actions and intention to hold to account those responsible for the ongoing atrocities.”

Egypt’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Osama Abdul-Khaleq, said the resolution was a message to Damascus that it was “high time to listen to the voice of its people.”

The league has called for the establishment of a joint U.N.-Arab League peacekeeping mission for Syria, but Western powers have reacted coolly to the idea and Thursday’s resolution did not endorse it.

In a bitter concluding statement, Ja’afari blasted what he called the Arab League’s “shameful position,” which he said was aimed at “the settling of political accounts with Syria.”

“Good luck to the Arab League in implementing the tasks entrusted to it by Israel,” he said. “Congratulations for this new alliance between the League of Arab States and Israel and the historical enemies of Syria.”

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Nabil Elaraby asked for U.N. help with the project during a telephone conversation on Tuesday, Ban told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council on a visit he just paid to the Middle East.

Elaraby had further proposed a joint U.N.-Arab League observer mission, including a joint special envoy, for Syria, where a harsh crackdown on an 11-month-old uprising has left thousands dead, according to U.N. figures. Ban said the United Nations was ready to help, but indicated no decision had been taken.

Elaraby “informed me that he intends to send the Arab League observer mission back to Syria and asked for U.N. help,” the U.N. chief said.

The mission first went to Syria in December, reaching a strength of 165 members, but the Arab League suspended it on January 28 because of worsening violence, although it did not wind it up. Six Gulf Arab states, Jordan and Morocco have pulled out their teams, but other members are still in Syria.

Elaraby told Reuters in an interview in Cairo on Monday that a new mission could be sent but under different terms and with more members.

“If we are going to send another mission, and we are contemplating that, it has to be stronger in numbers and in equipment. The mandate has to be different,” he said, adding it would need international not just Arab backing this time.

Arab foreign ministers have been planning to meet on Sunday to discuss the fate of the monitoring mission. It was not immediately clear whether the plan to revive the mission would go ahead anyway.

Ban said that “in the coming days we will further consult the (Security) Council before fleshing out details. We stand ready to assist in any way that will contribute towards improvement on the ground and to the overall situation.”

“No detailed discussions have taken place yet. We will have to discuss with the Arab League on detailed matters,” he said later in reply to questions.

Ban did not say what help the United Nations might give. U.N. diplomats and officials have spoken in the past of possible training of monitors.

Elaraby said this week any new monitoring mission would require Syria’s approval.

A Security Council diplomat said discussion of any U.N. involvement was at an early stage. “I think what we would want to see would be a mission that was really making a difference, not just standing by and watching people being killed,” said the diplomat, who asked not to be identified.

(Reporting By Patrick Worsnip; Editing by Peter Cooney)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the veto a “travesty.” It came a day after activists say Syrian forces bombarded a district of Homs, killing more than 200 people in the worst night of bloodshed of the 11-month uprising.

Russia said the resolution was biased and would have meant taking sides in a civil war. Syria is Moscow’s only big ally in the Middle East, home to a Russian naval base and customer for its arms. China’s veto appeared to follow Russia’s lead.

Washington’s U.N. ambassador Susan Rice said she was “disgusted” by Russia and China’s vetoes Saturday, and “any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands.”

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Moscow and Beijing had turned their backs on the Arab world. France’s Alain Juppe said they “carried a terrible responsibility in the eyes of the world and Syrian people.”

Clinton said the United States would work with other nations to try to tighten “regional and national” sanctions against Assad’s government “to dry up the sources of funding and the arms shipments that are keeping the regime’s war machine going.”

“We will work to expose those who are still funding the regime and sending it weapons that are used against defenseless Syrians, including women and children,” she said. “We will work with the friends of a democratic Syria around the world to support the opposition’s peaceful political plans for change.”

Clinton did not give further details which nations might band together or precisely what they might do. But it appeared that the United States might seek to help organize a “Friends of Syria” group – proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy after the veto – to advance the Arab League initiative given the inability to make headway at the U.N. due to Russia and China.

All 13 other members of the Security Council voted to back the resolution, which would have “fully supported” the Arab League plan for Assad to cede powers to a deputy, a withdrawal of troops from towns and a start to a transition to democracy.

The Western criticism was echoed in the Middle East, where Arab powers like Saudi Arabia and non-Arab Turkey have turned decisively against Assad in recent months.

“Unfortunately, yesterday in the U.N., the Cold War logic continues,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. “Russia and China did not vote based on the existing realities but more a reflexive attitude against the West.”

Arab League head Nabil Elaraby said the body still intends to build support for its plan. The veto “does not negate that there is clear international support for the resolutions of the Arab League,” he said in a statement seen by Reuters.

The Security Council’s sole Arab member, Morocco, voiced “great regret and disappointment” at the veto. Ambassador Mohammed Loulichki and said the Arabs had no intention of abandoning their plan.

Burhan Ghalioun, head of the opposition umbrella Syrian National Council, called Moscow and Beijing’s veto “a new license to kill from these two capitals for Bashar al-Assad and his criminal regime, which just yesterday killed 300 people.”

The SNC said it held Moscow and Beijing “responsible for the escalating acts of killing and genocide.”

Protesters stormed the Russian embassy in Libya’s capital Tripoli Sunday, climbing on the roof and tearing down the flag. Men held up a banner saying: “Libyan revolutionaries are ready to fight with their brothers in Syria.”

MOSCOW SAYS RESOLUTION BIASED

Russia’s U.N. envoy, Vitaly Churkin, accused the resolution’s backers of “calling for regime change, pushing the opposition toward power and not stopping their provocations and feeding armed struggle.”

“Some influential members of the international community, unfortunately including those sitting around this table, from the very beginning of the Syrian process have been undermining the opportunity for a political settlement,” he said. Moscow is sending Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Damascus Tuesday.

Clinton had met Lavrov before Saturday’s vote for what U.S. officials called “vigorous” talks.

“What happened yesterday at the United Nations was a travesty,” she said Sunday. “Those countries that refused to support the Arab League plan bear full responsibility for protecting the brutal machine in Damascus.”

She added: “Faced with a neutered Security Council, we have to redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people’s right to have a better future.”

Syria says it is being targeted by the West and by hostile neighbors providing diplomatic cover for an armed insurgency steered from abroad.

Syrian U.N. envoy Bashar Ja’afari condemned the resolution and its sponsors, which included Saudi Arabia and seven other Arab states, saying nations “that prevent women from attending a soccer match” had no right to preach democracy to Syria.

He also denied that Syrian forces killed hundreds of civilians in Homs, saying “no sensible person” would launch such an attack the night before the Security Council was set to discuss his country.

State television showed live footage of Assad Sunday praying with Muslim clerics and listening to Koranic verses in a Damascus mosque to mark the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad.

Residents of Homs’s battered Baba Amro district, speaking by telephone, denounced the Russian-Chinese veto, some chanting, “Death, rather than disgrace.”

One resident who identified himself as Sufyan said: “Now we will show Assad. We’re coming, Damascus. Starting today we will show Assad what an armed gang is.” Assad has called his opponents “armed gangs” and “terrorists” steered from abroad.

BOMBARDMENT

If activists’ accounts are accurate, the bombardment of Homs Friday night was one of the bloodiest episodes of the Arab Spring uprisings sweeping the region and the deadliest incident in the Syrian conflict.

Syrian activist groups gave varying tolls above 200 killed, saying tanks and artillery blasted the Khalidiya neighborhood of Homs, a restive city that has become a heartland of resistance to Assad’s rule.

Rami Abdullrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that as of Sunday he had a list of 159 names of people confirmed killed in that incident, lower than the figure cited by the main political opposition. He said his list was not yet complete.

Damascus denies firing on houses and says images of dead bodies on the Internet were staged. Western governments say they believe the activists’ account.

“Yesterday the Syrian government murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and children, in Homs through shelling and other indiscriminate violence, and Syrian forces continue to prevent hundreds of injured civilians from seeking medical help,” U.S. President Barack Obama said before the U.N. vote.

“Any government that brutalizes and massacres its people does not deserve to govern,” Obama said in a statement.

There were reports of more violence Sunday. Activist Omar Shakir, in the Baba Amro district of Homs, said there was new shelling Sunday afternoon and three people had been killed.

Abdulrahman’s group said a total of 19 people had been killed by security forces across the country, and that a total of 21 government troops had died fighting with defectors.

Syria’s state news agency SANA reported the funerals of three security personnel, adding to its announced toll of some 2,000 government forces killed during the uprising.

Syria restricts access to the country for journalists, and there was no independent verification of any of the reported death tolls in Syria Sunday.

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny and Dominic Evans in Beirut, Arshad Mohammed and Stephen Brown in Munich, Ahmed el-Shimy and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo, Caren Bohan and Katharine Jackson in Washington, Steve Gutterman in Moscow and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

The high-level diplomatic setback came after world leaders and Syrian opposition activists accused Assad’s forces of a massacre in a sustained shelling of Homs, the bloodiest episode in 11 months of upheaval in the pivotal Arab country.

Russia and China joined in a double veto of a Western- and Arab-driven resolution at the U.N. Security Council endorsing the Arab League plan for Assad to hand power to a deputy to make way for a transition towards democracy.

The other 13 council members voted for the resolution that would have said the council “fully supports” the League plan aimed at stopping Syria’s bloodshed, whose sectarian overtones threaten stability in the wider Middle East region.

Russia complained that the draft resolution was an improper and biased attempt at “regime change” in Syria, which is Moscow’s sole major Middle East ally, an important buyer of Russian arms exports and host to a Russian naval base.

With an eye to events in Homs, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice dispensed with the usual diplomatic courtesies and declared she was “disgusted” by the Russian-Chinese veto, adding that “any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands”.

Shortly before the Security Council voted, U.S. President Barack Obama denounced the “unspeakable assault” on Homs, demanded that Assad leave power immediately and called for U.N. action against Assad’s “relentless brutality”.

“Any government that brutalizes and massacres its people does not deserve to govern,” Obama said.

He and other Western and Arab leaders exerted unprecedented pressure on Russia to allow the Security Council to pass the Arab League-backed resolution that calls for Assad to relinquish his autocratic powers and end the violence. The world body says over 5,000 civilians have been killed.

SECOND VETO IN FOUR MONTHS

But Russia, and China following Moscow’s lead, weighed in to torpedo U.N. action on Syria for the second time in four months. In October, they vetoed a European-drafted resolution condemning Syria and threatening it with possible sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it had not been possible to work constructively with Russia ahead of the vote, even though military intervention in Syria – fiercely opposed by Moscow – had been absolutely ruled out.

“I thought that there might be some ways to bridge, even at this last moment, a few of the concerns that the Russians had. I offered to work in a constructive manner to do so. That has not been possible,” she told reporters at a Munich conference.

Clinton warned that the risk of more bloodshed and civil war in Syria had risen after the collapse of the U.N. resolution.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after the vote that France was consulting with Arab and European countries to create a contact group on Syria to try to find a solution to the crisis [ID:nnL5E8D40M5].

“France is not giving up,” Sarkozy said in a statement, saying Paris was in touch with Arab and European partners to create a “Friends of the Syrian People Group” that would marshal international support to implement the Arab League plan.

The uprising pits Syria’s majority Sunni Muslims against Assad’s minority Alawites, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, who have dominated the country’s power structure for decades.

After what U.S. officials called “vigorous” talks between Clinton and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Moscow announced that he and its foreign intelligence chief would fly to Syria on Tuesday to meet Assad, although the trip’s goal was not given.

Moscow objected that the resolution contained steps against Assad, but not against his armed opponents, Lavrov said in Munich before the vote. “Unless you do it both ways, you are taking sides in a civil war.”

In New York, Western delegations rejected what they called “wrecking amendments” by Russia to add language blaming the opposition along with the government for violence and diluting calls for Syria to withdraw its security forces from cities.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin denied that Moscow’s amendments were last-minute, or that Russia was standing in the way of a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

“Some influential members of the international community, unfortunately, including those sitting around this table, from the very beginning of the Syrian process have been undermining the opportunity for a political settlement,” Churkin said.

Syrian U.N. envoy Bashar Ja’afari criticized the resolution and its sponsors, which included Saudi Arabia and seven other Arab states, saying nations “that prevent women from attending a soccer match” had no right to preach democracy to Syria.

He also denied that Syrian forces killed hundreds of civilians in Homs, saying that “no sensible person” would launch such an attack the night before the Security Council was set to discuss his country.

Residents of Homs’ battered Baba Amro district, speaking by telephone, denounced the Russian-Chinese veto, some chanting, “Death, rather than disgrace”.

One resident who identified himself as Sufyan said: “Now we will show Assad. We’re coming, Damascus. Starting today we will show Assad what an armed gang is.” Assad has called his opponents “armed gangs” and “terrorists” steered from abroad.

Mohammed Loulichki, the U.N. ambassador of Morocco, the sole Arab member of the 15-nation council, voiced his “great regret and disappointment” at the veto and said the Arabs had no intention of abandoning their plan. British envoy Mark Lyall Grant said there would be a new U.N. push if violence continued.

France called the Homs assault a “massacre” and a “crime against humanity.”

Turkey said hundreds had been killed and the United Nations must act. Tunisia expelled the Syrian ambassador, and the flag above its embassy was brought down.

Death tolls cited by activists and opposition groups ranged from 237 to 260, making the Homs attack the bloodiest so far in Assad’s crackdown on protests and one of the deadliest episodes in the “Arab Spring” of revolts that have swept the region.

Residents said Syrian forces began shelling the Khalidiya neighborhood at around 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Friday using artillery and mortars. They said at least 36 houses were completely destroyed with families inside.

“We were sitting inside our house when we started hearing the shelling. We felt shells were falling on our heads,” said Waleed, a resident of Khalidiya.

“The morning has come and we have discovered more bodies, bodies are on the streets,” he said. “Some are still under the rubble. Our movement is better but there is little we can do without ambulances and other things.”

An activist in the neighborhood contacted by Reuters said:

“We have dug out at least 100 bodies so far, they are placed in the two mosques.” He put the total number of wounded at 500.

CONDEMNATION

Video footage on the Internet described as being from Homs showed at least eight bodies assembled in a room, one of them with the top half of its head blown off. A voice on the video said the bombardment was continuing as the footage was filmed.

As news of the violence spread, angry crowds of Syrians stormed their country’s embassies in Cairo, London, Berlin and Kuwait and protested in other cities.

Syria denied shelling Homs and said the Internet video was staged. It is not possible to verify activist or state media reports as Syria restricts independent media access.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, quoted a “media source” as saying, “The corpses displayed by some channels of incitement are martyrs, citizens kidnapped, killed and photographed by armed terrorist groups as if they are victims of the supposed shelling.”

The official Syrian account was disregarded across the globe, where international condemnation was thunderous.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe declared that “those responsible will have to answer for it” and, in remarks aimed at Moscow, said any country that blocked U.N. action would bear a “heavy responsibility in history.”

The Syrian government says it is facing a foreign-backed insurgency and that most of the dead have been its troops. SANA reported funerals of 22 members of the security forces.

Some Syrian activists said the violence was triggered by a wave of army defections in Homs, a stronghold of protests.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Logan, Mariam Karouny and Dominic Evans in Beirut, Arshad Mohammed and Stephen Brown in Munich, Ahmed el-Shimy in Cairo, Caren Bohan and Katharine Jackson in Washington, Steve Gutterman in Moscow and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Mark Heinrich and Peter Graff; Editing by Louise Ireland and Peter Cooney)

As U.N. diplomats began meeting behind closed doors, U.S. President Barack Obama denounced the “unspeakable assault,” demanded that Assad leave power immediately and called for U.N. action against Assad’s “relentless brutality.”

“Yesterday the Syrian government murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and children, in Homs through shelling and other indiscriminate violence, and Syrian forces continue to prevent hundreds of injured civilians from seeking medical help,” Obama said in a statement. “Any government that brutalises and massacres its people does not deserve to govern.”

He and other Western and Arab leaders put unprecedented pressure on Assad’s veto-wielding ally Russia to allow the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution backing an Arab League call for Assad to transfer powers to a deputy.

Moscow said the resolution was not “hopeless,” but its wording needed to be altered to avoid “taking sides in a civil war.” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was still possible to reach consensus.

But heading into the talks at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said amendments that Russia had proposed were “unacceptable.”

After what U.S. officials called “vigorous” talks between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Lavrov, Moscow announced that its foreign minister would fly to Syria in three days to meet Assad.

France called the Homs assault a “massacre” and a “crime against humanity.” Turkey said hundreds had been killed and the United Nations must act. Tunisia expelled the Syrian ambassador, and the flag above its embassy was brought down.

Death tolls cited by activists and opposition groups ranged from 237 to 260, making the Homs attack the deadliest so far in Assad’s crackdown on protests and one of the bloodiest episodes in the “Arab Spring” of revolts that have swept the region.

Residents said Syrian forces began shelling the Khalidiya neighbourhood at around 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Friday using artillery and mortars. They said at least 36 houses were completely destroyed with families inside.

“We were sitting inside our house when we started hearing the shelling. We felt shells were falling on our heads,” said Waleed, a resident of Khalidiya.

“The morning has come and we have discovered more bodies, bodies are on the streets,” he said. “Some are still under the rubble. Our movement is better but there is little we can do without ambulances and other things.”

An activist in the neighbourhood contacted by Reuters said residents were using primitive tools to rescue people. They feared many were buried under rubble.

“We are not getting any help, there are no ambulances or anything. We are removing the people with our own hands,” he said, adding there were only two field hospitals treating the wounded. Each one had a capacity to deal with 30 people, but he estimated the total number of wounded at 500.

“We have dug out at least 100 bodies so far, they are placed in the two mosques.”

A third Khalidiya resident, speaking by telephone with wailing and cries of “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) audible in the background, said at least 40 corpses had been retrieved from streets and damaged buildings.

CONDEMNATION

As news of the violence spread, angry crowds of Syrians stormed their country’s embassies in Cairo, London, Berlin and Kuwait and protested in other cities.

Syria denied shelling Homs and said Internet video of corpses was staged. It is not possible to verify activist or state media reports as Syria restricts independent media access.

The official Syrian account was disregarded across the globe, where international condemnation was thunderous.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said: “The Syrian authorities have jumped a new hurdle in savagery: the massacre in Homs is a crime against humanity and those responsible will have to answer for it.”

In remarks aimed at Moscow, he said any country that blocked U.N. action would bear a “heavy responsibility in history.”

Tunisia announced it was expelling the Syrian ambassador and revoking recognition of Assad’s government. The head of a committee of parliamentarians from Arab states said Arab countries should expel Syrian ambassadors and cut ties.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said: “If the Syrian administration is given the understanding that the current situation of hundreds of people dying daily can continue and the U.N. will not take a stance against it, the atmosphere of clashes will increase more.”

It was not immediately clear what had prompted Syrian forces to launch such an intense bombardment, just as diplomats at the Security Council were discussing the draft resolution supporting the Arab League demand for Assad to yield power.

Russia gave conflicting signals about its intentions. In an interview early on Saturday, Lavrov suggested Moscow would veto the resolution if it was presented without amendments.

“If they want another scandal for themselves in the Security Council, then we probably cannot stop them,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying. But as events marched on during the day with many of the world’s top security and foreign affairs officials gathered at a conference in Munich, Lavrov said: “We are not saying that this resolution is hopeless.”

Russia objected that the resolution contained steps against Assad, but not against his armed opponents, Lavrov said. “Unless you do it both ways, you are taking sides in a civil war.”

Clinton told the conference: “As a tyrant in Damascus brutalises his own people, America and Europe stand shoulder to shoulder. We are united, alongside the Arab League, in demanding an end to the bloodshed and a democratic future for Syria.”

Russia has balked at any Security Council language that would open to door to “regime change” in Syria, a rare Middle East ally where Moscow operates a naval base and sells billions of dollars in advanced weapons.

Clinton and Lavrov met at the conference for what a U.S. State Department official called “a very vigorous discussion.”

“The secretary made clear that…the United States feels strongly that the U.N. Security Council should vote today.”

HOUSES ON FIRE

Video footage on the Internet showed at least eight bodies assembled in a room, one of them with the top half of its head blown off. A voice on the video said the bombardment was continuing as the footage was filmed.

Syria’s state news agency SANA denied Homs was shelled, accusing rebels of killing people and presenting them as casualties for propaganda purposes before the U.N. vote.

“The corpses displayed by some channels of incitement are martyrs, citizens kidnapped, killed and photographed by armed terrorist groups as if they are victims of the supposed shelling,” it quoted a “media source” as saying.

The Syrian government says it is facing a foreign-backed insurgency and that most of the dead have been its troops. SANA reported funerals of 22 members of the security forces.

Some Syrian activists said the violence was triggered by a wave of army defections in Homs, a stronghold of protests.

Rami Abdulrahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters that the death toll had reached 237, with 60 people still missing. His group said 21 other people were also killed in other parts of Syria on Saturday, including 12 in a funeral procession in an outlying district of Damascus.

The opposition Syrian National Council said 260 civilians were killed, describing it as “one of the most horrific massacres since the beginning of the uprising in Syria.”

In Cairo, a crowd stormed the Syrian embassy, smashing furniture and setting fire to parts of the building in protest over the Homs bloodshed. The gate of the embassy was broken and furniture was smashed on the second floor of the building.

In London, 150 people hurled stones at the Syrian embassy, smashing windows and shouting slogans. Police said five men were arrested after breaking into the building and another held for assaulting police. Kuwait’s KUNA news agency said Syrians broke into the embassy there at dawn, tore down the flag and injured several security guards. Demonstrators burst into the embassy in Berlin, destroying portraits of Assad and his father.

In the cities of Hama and Idlib, activists said hundreds of people took to the streets in solidarity. They chanted in Idlib: “Homs is bombarded, and you are still sleeping?”

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny and Dominic Evans in Beirut, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, Arshad Mohammed and Stephen Brown in Munich, Ahmed el-Shimy in Cairo, Katharine Jackson in Washington and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

As U.N. diplomats began meeting behind closed doors, U.S. President Barack Obama denounced the “unspeakable assault,” demanded that Assad leave power immediately and called for U.N. action against Assad’s “relentless brutality.”

“Yesterday the Syrian government murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and children, in Homs through shelling and other indiscriminate violence, and Syrian forces continue to prevent hundreds of injured civilians from seeking medical help,” Obama said in a statement. “Any government that brutalizes and massacres its people does not deserve to govern.”

He and other Western and Arab leaders put unprecedented pressure on Assad’s veto-wielding ally Russia to allow the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution backing an Arab League call for Assad to transfer powers to a deputy.

Moscow said the resolution was not “hopeless,” but its wording needed to be altered to avoid “taking sides in a civil war.” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was still possible to reach consensus.

But heading into the talks at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said amendments that Russia had proposed were “unacceptable.”

After what U.S. officials called “vigorous” talks between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Lavrov, Moscow announced that its foreign minister would fly to Syria in three days to meet Assad.

France called the Homs assault a “massacre” and a “crime against humanity.” Turkey said hundreds had been killed and the United Nations must act. Tunisia expelled the Syrian ambassador, and the flag above its embassy was brought down.

Death tolls cited by activists and opposition groups ranged from 237 to 260, making the Homs attack the deadliest so far in Assad’s crackdown on protests and one of the bloodiest episodes in the “Arab Spring” of revolts that have swept the region.

Residents said Syrian forces began shelling the Khalidiya neighborhood at around 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Friday using artillery and mortars. They said at least 36 houses were completely destroyed with families inside.

“We were sitting inside our house when we started hearing the shelling. We felt shells were falling on our heads,” said Waleed, a resident of Khalidiya.

“The morning has come and we have discovered more bodies, bodies are on the streets,” he said. “Some are still under the rubble. Our movement is better but there is little we can do without ambulances and other things.”

An activist in the neighborhood contacted by Reuters said residents were using primitive tools to rescue people. They feared many were buried under rubble.

“We are not getting any help, there are no ambulances or anything. We are removing the people with our own hands,” he said, adding there were only two field hospitals treating the wounded. Each one had a capacity to deal with 30 people, but he estimated the total number of wounded at 500.

“We have dug out at least 100 bodies so far, they are placed in the two mosques.”

A third Khalidiya resident, speaking by telephone with wailing and cries of “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) audible in the background, said at least 40 corpses had been retrieved from streets and damaged buildings.

CONDEMNATION

As news of the violence spread, angry crowds of Syrians stormed their country’s embassies in Cairo, London, Berlin and Kuwait and protested in other cities.

Syria denied shelling Homs and said Internet video of corpses was staged. It is not possible to verify activist or state media reports as Syria restricts independent media access.

The official Syrian account was disregarded across the globe, where international condemnation was thunderous.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said: “The Syrian authorities have jumped a new hurdle in savagery: the massacre in Homs is a crime against humanity and those responsible will have to answer for it.”

In remarks aimed at Moscow, he said any country that blocked U.N. action would bear a “heavy responsibility in history.”

Tunisia announced it was expelling the Syrian ambassador and revoking recognition of Assad’s government. The head of a committee of parliamentarians from Arab states said Arab countries should expel Syrian ambassadors and cut ties.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said: “If the Syrian administration is given the understanding that the current situation of hundreds of people dying daily can continue and the U.N. will not take a stance against it, the atmosphere of clashes will increase more.”

It was not immediately clear what had prompted Syrian forces to launch such an intense bombardment, just as diplomats at the Security Council were discussing the draft resolution supporting the Arab League demand for Assad to yield power.

Russia gave conflicting signals about its intentions. In an interview early on Saturday, Lavrov suggested Moscow would veto the resolution if it was presented without amendments.

“If they want another scandal for themselves in the Security Council, then we probably cannot stop them,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying. But as events marched on during the day with many of the world’s top security and foreign affairs officials gathered at a conference in Munich, Lavrov said: “We are not saying that this resolution is hopeless.”

Russia objected that the resolution contained steps against Assad, but not against his armed opponents, Lavrov said. “Unless you do it both ways, you are taking sides in a civil war.”

Clinton told the conference: “As a tyrant in Damascus brutalizes his own people, America and Europe stand shoulder to shoulder. We are united, alongside the Arab League, in demanding an end to the bloodshed and a democratic future for Syria.”

Russia has balked at any Security Council language that would open to door to “regime change” in Syria, a rare Middle East ally where Moscow operates a naval base and sells billions of dollars in advanced weapons.

Clinton and Lavrov met at the conference for what a U.S. State Department official called “a very vigorous discussion.”

“The secretary made clear that…the United States feels strongly that the U.N. Security Council should vote today.”

HOUSES ON FIRE

Video footage on the Internet showed at least eight bodies assembled in a room, one of them with the top half of its head blown off. A voice on the video said the bombardment was continuing as the footage was filmed.

Syria’s state news agency SANA denied Homs was shelled, accusing rebels of killing people and presenting them as casualties for propaganda purposes before the U.N. vote.

“The corpses displayed by some channels of incitement are martyrs, citizens kidnapped, killed and photographed by armed terrorist groups as if they are victims of the supposed shelling,” it quoted a “media source” as saying.

The Syrian government says it is facing a foreign-backed insurgency and that most of the dead have been its troops. SANA reported funerals of 22 members of the security forces.

Some Syrian activists said the violence was triggered by a wave of army defections in Homs, a stronghold of protests.

Rami Abdulrahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters that the death toll had reached 237, with 60 people still missing. His group said 21 other people were also killed in other parts of Syria on Saturday, including 12 in a funeral procession in an outlying district of Damascus.

The opposition Syrian National Council said 260 civilians were killed, describing it as “one of the most horrific massacres since the beginning of the uprising in Syria.”

In Cairo, a crowd stormed the Syrian embassy, smashing furniture and setting fire to parts of the building in protest over the Homs bloodshed. The gate of the embassy was broken and furniture was smashed on the second floor of the building.

In London, 150 people hurled stones at the Syrian embassy, smashing windows and shouting slogans. Police said five men were arrested after breaking into the building and another held for assaulting police. Kuwait’s KUNA news agency said Syrians broke into the embassy there at dawn, tore down the flag and injured several security guards. Demonstrators burst into the embassy in Berlin, destroying portraits of Assad and his father.

In the cities of Hama and Idlib, activists said hundreds of people took to the streets in solidarity. They chanted in Idlib: “Homs is bombarded, and you are still sleeping?”

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny and Dominic Evans in Beirut, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, Arshad Mohammed and Stephen Brown in Munich, Ahmed el-Shimy in Cairo, Katharine Jackson in Washington and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

“We all have a choice: stand with the people of Syria and the region or become complicit in the continuing violence there,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the 15-nation council.

“The United States urges the Security Council to back the Arab League’s demand that the Syrian Government immediately stop all attacks against civilians and guarantee the freedom of peaceful demonstrations,” she said.

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby called on the council to take “rapid and decisive action” while Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani warned that Syria’s “killing machine is still at work.”

“Do not let the Syrian people down in its plight,” Elaraby said, calling for council backing for a European-Arab draft resolution that endorses the Arab plan.

He said Arab nations were trying to avoid foreign military intervention in the 10-month-old Syrian crisis that has killed thousands of civilians, a point Sheikh Hamad also emphasized. The Qatari prime minister suggested the council should use economic leverage instead.

“We are not calling for a military intervention,” Sheikh Hamad said. “We are advocating the exertion of a concrete economic pressure so that the Syrian regime might realize that it is imperative to meet the demands of its people.”

INTERVENTION A ‘MYTH’

“We are not after regime change, for this is a matter that is up to the Syrian people to decide,” he added.

Their public rejection of foreign military intervention appeared aimed at Russia, which Western diplomats are worried may veto the draft resolution on Syria out of fear that it could lead to a Libyan-style military operation.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague told the council the resolution “does not call for military action and could not be used to authorize it.” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe described the idea of such intervention as a myth.

“We are ready to vote now on the text,” Juppe said.

Both Sheikh Hamad and Elaraby blamed the crisis in Syria squarely on the government, whereas Russia has sought to blame both the opposition and government equally. Elaraby said the opposition had resorted to arms because of what he called “the excessive use of force” by Syrian authorities.

Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari rejected the suggestion that his government was responsible for the crisis, accusing the United States and its European allies of wanting to conquer new territory in the Middle East.

He said Western powers yearned for “the return of colonialism and hegemony.”

Clinton said that by pitting ethnic and religious groups against each other, Syrian leaders were bringing their country closer to the brink of civil war.

“The evidence is clear that Assad’s forces are initiating nearly all the attacks that kill civilians, but as more citizens take up arms to resist the regime’s brutality, violence is increasingly likely to spiral out of control,” she said.

(Additional reporting by Edith Honan; editing by Christopher Wilson)

In the teeth of strong opposition from the United States and Israel, the Palestinian Authority applied to the council last September for U.N. membership. But a committee to consider the application failed to reach consensus, and the Palestinians have not so far requested a formal vote in the council.

Addressing a Jewish audience in New York, Ambassador Susan Rice said that since the committee’s report, the application had “essentially stayed there for the time being.”

“I presume that is because the Palestinians decided that, given the voting likely outcome in the council, it wasn’t timely to push it to a vote,” she told the governing board of the American Jewish Committee, or AJC. “The fact is, nobody knows for sure what the Palestinians will choose to do.”

Asked whether the replacement of five members of the 15-nation council as of January 1 might affect the issue, Rice said, “I think that we are roughly in the same place now as we were last year, and potentially even in a better position.”

The issue for the Palestinians last year was not whether their application would get council approval – since the United States was considered certain to veto it – but whether they could score a moral victory and force Washington to use its veto by winning nine votes in favor from other members.

In the absence of a veto, a council resolution needs nine votes to pass. But diplomats said at the time the Palestinians would get only eight votes in support, with other countries voting against or abstaining.

Diplomats say that situation remains despite the changes in the council membership. Newcomer Azerbaijan is thought likely to support the Palestinian application, whereas its predecessor, Bosnia, was expected to abstain. But Guatemala is unlikely to follow its predecessor, Brazil, in backing the Palestinians. The other three newcomers represent no change.

The Palestinian choice is whether to push for a Security Council vote anyway, take the issue to the U.N. General Assembly – which cannot confer membership but can upgrade their status as observers – or do nothing as contacts continue with Israel over a possible resumption of peace talks.

Rice reaffirmed the U.S. line that a Palestinian state would come only through direct negotiations with Israel, not “through a short-cut at the United Nations.”

In her remarks to the AJC, Rice stressed U.S. backing at the United Nations for Israel. Some U.S. Republicans have accused President Barack Obama of being insufficiently supportive of the Jewish state.

With the U.S. election campaign heating up, one of Rice’s deputies spoke publicly last week on the need for reforming U.N. practices, addressing another concern of Republicans who charge the Obama administration is too close to the world body.

(Reporting By Patrick Worsnip; Editing by Peter Cooney)