Qatar pushes for military action in Syria

Qatar on Saturday urged UN envoy Kofi Annan to set a timeframe for his Syria peace mission, and asked the UN Security Council to apply Chapter VII which permits military intervention.

"We request Mr. Annan to set a timeframe for his mission because it is unacceptable that massacres and bloodshed continue while the mission is ongoing indefinitely," Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani told a ministerial committee on Syria attended by Annan.

"We demand the UN Security Council to refer the six-point (Annan plan) to Chapter VII so that the international community could assume responsibilities, he said.

The Qatari premier, whose country has been taking a leading role in mobilizing the international community to act against Damascus over its 15-month deadly crackdown on dissent, said the Syrian regime "makes a mistake in betting on surviving this way."

He accused the Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime of ignoring Annan's six-point peace plan, saying Damascus "did not implement the first point of the plan and ignored the rest."

Annan's plan calls for a halt to violence, daily two-hour humanitarian truce, media access to areas of fighting, the launching of a political dialogue, the right to demonstrate and the release of detainees.

Both the Syrian government and the rebels have consistently abused the ceasefire.

In April, the UN Security Council unanimously passed its first ever resolution on the Syria crisis, allowing for a team of unarmed ceasefire monitors.

Some 300 monitors have been allowed into Syria, but the UN-backed ceasefire which technically went into effect on April 12 has been violated daily as deadly violence continues to plague the country.

(AFP)