Italy: Syria Risks 'Genocide' Without Rapid Action
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's policies risk creating genocide in the conflict-torn country unless there is swift action to stop him, Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said on Wednesday.
"The strategy of Damascus risks causing genocide without rapid intervention," Terzi told lawmakers during a parliamentary hearing.
He said there were talks on increasing the numbers of U.N. monitors on the ground in Syria and giving them "a greater self-defense capability."
Italy expelled the Syrian ambassador to Rome last month in a coordinated action with other Western powers after a massacre in the town of Houla.
The Syrian leadership "is fighting for its survival with an ever more direct and brutal escalation, with terror against the civilian population and with the artificial fuelling of internal conflict," Terzi said.
"It would be difficult for President Assad, his brother or his relatives to have a role in the political transition in Syria that is acceptable to the opposition," he added.
"The objective is a Syria-led transition not imposed from the outside and shared by the largest possible majority of the Syrian people," he said.
Russia and China earlier on Wednesday voiced their strong opposition to intervention and regime change in Syria and urged support for the peace plan put forward by U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan.
Terzi said Italy also supported the Annan plan, saying "we have to make it work" but adding: "So far the results have been very modest."
Source: Agence France Presse
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