Envoys from Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — the permanent veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council — will meet today to discuss the situation in Syria, diplomats said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had said earlier that the failure to halt atrocities in the war-torn country had become a new stain on the reputation of the world body and the Security Council powers.
France, Britain and the United States had yesterday pressed for a Council resolution that would impose tough consequences should Damascus fail to hand over the control of its banned chemical weapons.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that it would be “unacceptable” for the 15-nation Council to pass a text that puts the blame on President Bashar al-Assad for an August 21 attack in the Damascus suburbs.
A Council meeting scheduled for today was cancelled at the last minute at Moscow’s request.
France has indicated that it is ready to modify, within limits, its draft resolution but intends to keep the military option on the table as a means of pressurising the Assad regime.
At Russia’s urging, Damascus has said that it wants to put its arsenal of chemical weapons under international supervision in compliance with the 1993 convention banning the weapons.
Russia has provided the United States with a plan for controlling the weapons, to be discussed on Thursday in Geneva by the US and Russian foreign ministers, according to a Russian government source.