BICOM

Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned President Bashar Assad that he does not have “unlimited time” to find a peaceful settlement with opposition protesters in Syria. Attending the international Friends of the Syrian People conference in Istanbul yesterday, Hague said the issue could return to the United Nations Security Council if current efforts to resolve the crisis fail.

The regime has said it accepts a peace plan by the UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, but so far there is little evidence that it is prepared to end its brutal crackdown on the opposition.

“There isn’t an unlimited period of time for this, for the Kofi Annan process to work before many of the nations here want us to go back to the UN Security Council,” he told the BBC.

“What is now being put to them is a plan from Kofi Annan supported by the whole United Nations Security Council, and this is an important point, it’s supported by Russia and by China as well as by the more obvious countries – the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Arab League and so on.

“So, if the Assad regime fails to go along with this plan and doesn’t start implementing this on the ground then they are in defiance not only of what we have said but of what Russia and China have supported as well, and that then may be a different situation at the UN Security Council from those we’ve faced over the last year.” Hague also warned that Assad’s failure to comply with international demands would lead some countries to arm the opposition, though he did not elaborate on this point.