Britain works in unison with partners to derail Annan’s Syria “Peace Effort” – Annan Resigns

Britain to increase support for Syrian rebels
Al Akhbar – 3 August, 2012

Britain promised more support for Syrian rebels on Friday after the resignation of envoy Kofi Annan highlighted the failure of international diplomacy to halt the 17-month-old conflict in Syria.

“That doesn’t mean … that we give up on diplomacy,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague told BBC Radio 4. “We don’t give up on the diplomacy with Russia and with China. But we will have to do other things as well.”

Moscow and Beijing have frequently complained about Western and Gulf Arab backing for the insurgents locked in an increasingly bloody drive to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying such support undermines peace efforts.

“We will over the coming weeks increase our practical but non-lethal support to the opposition,” Hague said. “We have helped with communications and matters of that kind and we will help them more in this situation given the scale of death and suffering and the failure so far of the diplomatic process.”

Assad says the insurgency is the work of foreign-backed “terrorists”, with his own forces acting to restore stability.

Britain and the United States have blamed Russia and China for the failure of the peace mission Annan had conducted on behalf of the United Nations and Arab League.

“It (the diplomatic process) is not dead but … it is a bleak moment,” said Hague, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin in London on Thursday. “Diplomacy has not worked so far. Diplomacy has so far failed the people of Syria.”

Annan cited the continued “finger pointing” among world powers as one of the reasons for his resignation, but Britain, the US and Germany insist on blaming Russia and China for the failure of his project.

Russia and China thwarted three Western attempts at the UN Security Council to push through resolutions that would have paved the way for military action in Syria.

Moscow and Beijing are wary that the West is seeking to exploit the Syrian crisis to further their interests.

The two powers point to a UN resolution in 2011 on Libya, which ultimately led to Western military intervention that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, with Europe grabbing much of Libya’s lucrative oil resources. …source