But Russia showed little sign of that it would change it stance, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slamming "risky recipes" which he said risked increasing conflict in the Middle East.
Syria dominated a U.N. Security Council ministerial meeting on the Arab uprisings, which came a day after U.N.-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
special envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the United Nations were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself...
left Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
, where he met Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
"I add my voice to that of Mr. Annan in urging President Assad to act swiftly, within the next few days, in response to the proposals put forward" by the envoy, U.N. Secretary General
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
told the meeting.
"I appeal to the Security Council to unite strongly behind ending the violence and supporting Mr. Annan's mission to help Syria pull back from the brink of a deeper catastrophe," he added.
Russia and China have twice used their powers as permanent Security Council members to veto resolutions on Syria, saying they were unbalanced and only sought regime change.
The other permanent members -- the United States, Britannia and La Belle France -- stepped up their condemnation of Assad, but also urged Russia and China to agree a resolution.
La Belle France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe appealed directly to Russia and China, while also calling on the council to call for an
International Criminal Court... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
investigation into the Syria crackdown, where the U.N. says more than 7,500 people have died in the past year.
"After months of blocking, I appeal to China and Russia to hear the voices of the Arabs and the world conscience and join us," Juppe said.
"We believe that now is the time for all nations, even those who have previously blocked our efforts, to stand behind the humanitarian and political approach spelled out by the vaporous Arab League," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as
The Heroine of Tuzlaand at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Chateaubriand...
told the council.
"The international community should say with one voice -- without hesitation or caveat -- that the killing of innocent Syrians must stop and a political transition must begin," Clinton said.
"The situation in Syria casts a long shadow over this debate," declared Britannia's Foreign Secretary William Hague, whose country organized the debate as president of the Security Council for March.
"In the eyes of the overwhelming majority of the world, this council has so far failed in its responsibilities towards the Syrian people."
But Lavrov maintained his argument against "unilateral" U.N. action, and repeated Russia's condemnation of NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
's
Change in the Arab world "must not be achieved by misleading the international community or manipulating the Security Council," Lavrov said.
"There is no doubt whatsoever that the Syrian authorities bear a huge share of responsibility for the situation," Lavrov said, but he added that the government was now fighting gangs, not just unarmed protesters.
Lavrov condemned "making hasty demands for regime change, imposing unilateral sanctions designed to trigger economic difficulties and social tensions in countries and inducing the opposition to continue its confrontation with authorities instead of promoting dialogue."
All were, he added, "risky recipes of geopolitical engineering which can only result in a spread of the conflict."