UN Security Council to consider Syria

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to vote on a new Syria resolution on Wednesday, but Russia is threatening to veto any resolution which could eventually allow the use of force to end the conflict in Syria. There has been a lot of diplomatic negotiations to get a resolution passed which would send a strong signal to Syria. Join UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has been in Russia for two days of high-level meetings, including talks with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

"We've had a very good discussion with the President, discussing the situation and the crisis in Syria, focusing on what measures need to be taken to end the violence and the killing and how we move on to the political transition,” Annan said.

The mandate of the 300-strong U.N. observer force in Syria expires on Friday and the Security Council must decide by then whether to extend it. The resolution, proposed by Britain, the United States, France and Germany, would extend that U.N. mission for 45 days and place Annan's peace plan under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter. Chapter 7 is also the part of the UN Charter which would eventually allow the use of force if a resolution is not carried out. Russia said any such resolution is a “red line” it will not cross.

But on Tuesday, the British Foreign Secretary William Hague insisted during a trip to a Syrian Refugee camp in Jordan that a Chapter 7 resolution is the ``best hope'' for ending the conflict in Syria.

``Those nations that might block a Security Council resolution have to consider the fact that if they do so, they will be held increasingly responsible for the consequences, for that chaos and bloodshed that are even now becoming worse in Syria,'' Hague said.

Over 15,000 people are believed to have been killed since the uprising in Syria began 16 months ago.

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