The United States and Germany late on Monday led Western calls for the divided UN Security Council to act on Syria’s deadly assault against protests after UN investigators said crimes against humanity had been committed. “It is past time for the Security Council to take much more decisive action with respect to Syria,” said US ambassador Susan Rice. The Council cannot “stand idly by,” added Germany’s UN envoy Peter Wittig.
A report by a UN human rights commission, which said crimes against humanity had been ordered by the “highest levels” of Assad’s government, and the Arab League decision to order sanctions have strengthened the calls for action. Violence flared again in Syria where three more civilians were killed on Tuesday, despite issuance of a damning UN report, one of them in a raid launched after suspected mutinous soldiers shot dead three members of the security forces, a rights group said.