BICOM

Foreign Secretary William Hague strongly condemned the Syrian regime yesterday, and said attacks against civilians in Hama have ‘no justification’. Commenting on the violence in Syria the Foreign Secretary added: ‘I am appalled by the reports that the Syrian security forces have stormed Hama with tanks and other heavy weapons…Such action against civilians who have been protesting peacefully in large numbers in the city for a number of weeks has no justification. The attack appears to be part of a coordinated effort across a number of towns in Syria to deter the Syrian people from protesting in advance of Ramadan.’

Yesterday, Syrian forces killed around 100 civilians in an assault on the town of Hama. According to eyewitnesses, troops and tanks entered the town, crushing makeshift barriers erected by protestors and firing indiscriminately. Hama, a Sunni town of around 800,000 inhabitants, has become a focal point of resistance to the regime of President Bashar Assad. The town has been effectively under siege for the last month, with troops blocking all entrances and exits. Syrian activists are attributing the regime’s sudden move to end the standoff as related to the festival of Ramadan, which begins today. The regime evidently fears that with the onset of Ramadan, protests will take place throughout the week. Assad therefore evidently intended to crush centers of the revolt before the beginning of the month-long festival.

To date, the United Nations Security Council has not been able to agree on a statement on President Bashar Assad’s four-month violent crackdown against protesters. Britain, along with France, has been at the forefront of countries attempting to address the suppression in the UN Security Council. Germany and Italy today have called for a UN Security Council meeting this afternoon to discuss the crackdown by the Assad regime. In the past Russia, China, South Africa, India and Brazil – which are incensed over the NATO bombing campaign in Libya – have refused to support any condemnation of Syria, with Russia and China threatening to veto any formal resolution against Assad. European diplomats have indicated this morning, however, that the latest violence could sway one of the doubters to back a Security Council move.

World leaders, including President Barack Obama, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, have all expressed their outrage at the latest Syrian move. Hama was the scene of an earlier massacre in 1982, which effectively ended a revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood against the rule of the Assad family.