Blame game flares after Annan resigns
World powers traded blame on Friday after Kofi Annan quit as international peace envoy to Syria, complaining that his initiative to end the bloodshed there never received the support it deserved.
The former UN secretary general hit out at "continuous finger-pointing and name-calling" at the UN Security Council, which he said had prevented coordinated action to stop the violence.
"I did not receive all the support that the cause deserved," Annan told a hastily arranged news conference in Geneva.
But Annan predicted that President Bashar al-Assad would go "sooner or later," and did not rule out his successor having more luck or success, despite his warning there was "no Plan B."
Writing in the Financial Times, Annan called on Moscow and Washington to shoulder responsibility for saving Syria from catastrophic civil war.
"Syria can still be saved from the worst calamity. But this requires courage and leadership, most of all from the permanent members of the Security Council, including from Presidents (Vladimir) Putin and (Barack) Obama," he wrote.
Annan's resignation sparked a new round of recriminations among the council's five permanent members, with the United States blaming Russia and China for vetoing three separate UN resolutions on the conflict.
"Annan's resignation highlights the failure at the United Nations Security Council of Russia and China to support meaningful resolutions against Assad that would have held Assad accountable," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
Germany also said Annan's decision was partly due to Chinese and Russian opposition to sanctions.
But Russia's envoy to the world body, Vitaly Churkin, insisted Moscow had supported Annan "very strongly," and Putin called his resignation a "great shame."
"Kofi Annan is a man of great merit, a brilliant diplomat and a very honest person, so it is a great shame," Putin was quoted as saying in London.
Russia yesterday called for replacement of Kofi Annan.
"A worthy candidate to succeed Kofi Annan should be urgently found," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
"In the developing situation, keeping a UN presence in the country acquires special significance," it said.
China said it wanted the United Nations to play an important role in trying to stop the conflict, which activists say has cost the lives of more than 20,000 people since it erupted in March 2011.
Iran yesterday blamed the West, especially the United States, for the failure of the Syria peace plan worked out by Kofi Annan.
"The West and some regional countries did not want Annan to succeed," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
"Every time Mr Annan sought to resolve the Syrian crisis, the West created obstacles," he said.
Russia and China are also expected to vote on Friday against a resolution before the UN General Assembly, where no country has the power of veto.
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