Draft resolution calls for Assad to surrender power as Saudis move to recognise opposition Syrian National Council
The United Nations security council is expected to discuss a draft resolution backed by most Arab states that calls for the Assad regime to surrender its totalitarian hold on Syria.
Friday's closed-door discussion was called ahead of a possible vote next week on the resolution. It marks a new phase in the regional stand against Syria, which has rapidly gained momentum over the past fortnight as the Arab League has actively looked for ways to end the crisis.
However the growing regional pressure on Syria, which increased on Friday with a move by Saudi Arabia to recognise a nascent opposition movement, could again be stymied by staunch Syrian allies Russia and China.
Both countries have barely wavered in their support for Damascus since they used their roles as permanent members of the global security body three months ago to veto a US-led resolution aimed at curbing a rapid slide towards outright sectarian war.
The Arab states are banking on their increasingly unified voice and more active role in attempts to broker an enduring truce as factors that could bring Russia and China around.
Neither has so far shown any sign of accepting the proposed tougher measures, which are likely to include a timeframe for a political transition to a national unity government and tighter controls over arms supplies to Syria.
Russia is known to have been angered by the Nato intervention in Libya that helped topple Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year-old regime. It also maintains strategic ties with Damascus, which date back to the cold war and now centre on a naval base in the Syrian port of Tartous that gives Moscow a foothold in the Levant.
However western officials believe the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin's stance on Syria has more to do with domestic considerations. "He's sick of 'spring'," said one western official in Beirut, in reference to the Arab spring that has unseated four entrenched regional autocrats in less than 12 months.
"He will do whatever he can to support Assad to stop that sort of unrest spreading to Russia."
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi and the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, will travel to New York on Monday to brief UN officials ahead of the planned security council vote.
Qatar is the only Arab state to have so far called for military intervention in Syria, where a steadily growing guerilla army of defectors and citizens is battling a well-armed Syrian military.
Qatar has led diplomatic efforts to stop the violence in Syria, which has claimed at least 6,000 lives and appears locked into a cycle of killing that escalates monthly. However, Saudi Arabia moved this week to seize the initiative from the tiny Gulf state, apparently believing that it had allowed Syria to dictate terms to the Arab League monitor mission.
The new Saudi move to recognise the Syrian National Council as a legitimate representative of Syrians marks another claim by the kingdom to assert itself as a power-broker in managing a crisis that has a serious risk of dragging other regional states into conflict
Meanwhile, the depleted monitoring mission to Syria is continuing, despite Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Co-operation Council withdrawing their 62 monitors from the 160-member delegation.
Large demonstrations were again taking place across Syria on Friday – the first day of the weekend in most of the Arab world. Demonstrators are trying to secure a foothold in parts of the capital, which has remained under the control of loyalist forces throughout the 10-month uprising. However, key areas such as Douma to the north of the city, have at times fallen into opposition hands this week.