Clinton: UN Unlikely To Send Syria Peacekeepers

Hillary Clinton has backed an Arab League plan to end the violence in Syria, but acknowledged it was unlikely that calls for a UN military presence would be met.
After a meeting with her Turkish counterpart, the US Secretary of State said: "There are a lot of challenges to be discussed as to how to put into effect all of their recommendations and certainly the peacekeeping request is one that will take agreement and consensus.
"We don't know that it is going to be possible to persuade Syria. They have already, as of today, rejected that."
The 22-nation Arab League has called on the UN Security Council to set up a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping force and said it will provide support to Syrian opposition groups.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "Such a mission could have an important role to play in saving lives."
But he acknowledged that with Russia and China vetoing a previous resolution on Syria, any attempt to create such a force would likely fail.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay earlier said the failure to pass that resolution condemning Syria had encouraged the regime to "launch an all-out assault" on its people.
She told the UN General Assembly that the scale of deaths in the last year indicated that crimes against humanity have taken place and continue in the country and that they must not go unpunished.
Centres of the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al Assad have come under increasing ferocious attack in the last week, with districts of the city of Homs under daily bombardment.
Ms Pillay said more than 5,400 people were killed last year alone, and the number of dead and injured continues to rise daily.
Tens of thousands of people, including children, have been arrested, more than 18,000 reportedly are still arbitrarily detained and thousands more are reported missing, she added.
Syria's opposition has been urged to unite ahead of a meeting on February 24 in Tunisia of the so-called "Friends of Syria" group, which includes the US, its European allies and Arab nations.
In the run-up to the talks, Mrs Clinton said Washington would work with Turkey and others to "promote a political process" as Syrians deserve a "democratic future free of government oppression, terrorism and violent extremism".
While Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said: "The meeting in Tunisia will be an important international platform to show solidarity to (the) Syrian people and to send a strong and clear message to (the) Syrian regime that they can not continue this."