UN General Assembly seeks new role in Syria conflict with Security Council deadlocked

Member states of the UN General Assembly are growing increasingly impatient with the deadlocked Security Council in the face of atrocities in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo.

On Thursday, the Assembly met informally with UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon to see if there is enough support for an emergency session that could allow for bypassing the Security Council, where Russia has vetoed all five resolutions opposing the Syrian government.

Canada has taken a lead role in calling for a special session, drafting a letter last week on behalf of 69 countries.

“The General Assembly also has responsibilities which should be exercised in regard to the maintenance of international peace and security,” it read.

It is unclear how effective a General Assembly resolution would be since, unlike a Security Council resolution, it is non-binding.

At Thursday’s meeting, Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion called for a halt in airstrikes and criticized a newly implemented Russian ceasefire in Aleppo.

“A short humanitarian pause, announced unilaterally, without notice and without clear parameters, does not allow the necessary aid,” he said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he welcomed the ceasefire, but stressed that not nearly enough is being done to provide medical help to the more than 200,000 trapped in the besieged city.

Calling the conditions in the city “medieval” and reminding those in attendance that no UN convoy has reached Aleppo in three months, he begged the world community to learn from past mistakes.

“Have we learned nothing from Srebenica and Rwanda?,” he asked.

Although the discussion on Syria had moved from the Security Council to the General Assembly, the US and Russian ambassadors were still at each other’s throats.

US ambassador Samantha Power laid into Russia for its unilateral ceasefire.

“You may hear Russia claim credit for briefly pausing its aerial assault on eastern Aleppo,” she said. “But it is not and must never become praiseworthy to refrain from committing atrocities.”

Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin, whose government has been steadfast that the other countries on the Security Council are faltering in the fight against terrorism by opposing Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, said he found the meeting “puzzling.”

“Not a single word on terror organizations like Nusra or ISIL,” he said.

UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, who joined the meeting via videolink from his native Sweden, said Aleppo could fall by December if a cessation of hostilities isn’t upheld.

To close out the session, he was asked whether a potential special session of the General Assembly would be useful.

“Let’s hope the bombing stops on both sides. If it doesn’t, I think it would be time for a special session of the General Assembly in case the Security Council doesn’t have the capacity to unify themselves in stopping this horror,” he said.