By Henry Meyer
LONDON: The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, says he cannot rule out military intervention in Syria, describing the situation there as beginning to resemble the violence that gripped Bosnia in the 1990s.
Mr Hague told Sky News television yesterday that time was now ''clearly running short'' to implement international envoy Kofi Annan's ceasefire plan in Syria.
Asked if the British government had ruled out the use of force, Mr Hague said Syria was ''on the edge of collapse or of a sectarian civil war, so I don't think we can rule anything out''.
He compared the situation in Syria to what happened in Bosnia in the '90s, when campaigns of sectarian bloodletting pulled the country apart, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths.
The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, said yesterday that Syria's slide towards full-scale civil war reinforced the ''urgent'' need for an international conference to pressure both sides of the conflict.
Speaking in Moscow, Mr Lavrov also indicated that Russia would no longer stand in the way of the departure of President Bashar al-Assad if that was what Syrians wanted.
However, Russia still insists there should be no external intervention in the conflict.
''If the Syrians agree [on Assad's departure] between each other, we will only be happy to support such a solution,'' Mr Lavrov said. ''But … it is unacceptable to impose the conditions for such a dialogue from outside. You have to force them to sit down at the negotiating table after first halting the violence. That's the point of this conference.''
Abdel Basit Seida, who was elected the new leader of the Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group, at the weekend, said yesterday that the Assad regime was on its ''last legs''.
''The multiplying massacres and shellings show that it is struggling,'' Mr Seida said.
Mr Seida, who has lived in exile in Sweden for two decades, replaced Burhan Ghalioun, who resigned last month in the face of mounting splits undermining the council's credibility.
Last Wednesday Russia and China proposed a meeting to back efforts by Mr Annan, the United Nations-Arab League special envoy, to broker a peaceful settlement.
Mr Lavrov said Iran should be invited to attend the conference, alongside the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the European Union and Arab League states including Syria's neighbours, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
International efforts are failing to halt intensifying violence as the 15-month uprising against Mr Assad's government deteriorates into sectarian fighting.
At least 83 people were killed across Syria on Saturday, including women and children among 20 dead in the flashpoint town of Daraa, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees, an activist group.
The US has not signalled its opposition to the proposed conference. However, it has criticised the inclusion of Iran, Mr Lavrov said, and he urged the US to show ''pragmatism'' by allowing Iran to take part.
Iran could exert influence over Mr Assad's government as a regional ally, Mr Lavrov said. The initiative has previously been rejected by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who expressed doubts that Iran would play a constructive role.
Iranis the Syrian government's strongest backer, along with Russia and China.
At the United Nations on Thursday, Mr Annan warned that Syria was headed towards a future of ''brutal repression, massacres, sectarian violence and even all-out civil war''.
Privately, he told the Security Council that his efforts to bring about peace could not be open-ended, and international consultations must yield results, said diplomats who were present.
UN observers have found evidence of atrocities in the village of Mazraat al-Qubair, where up to 78 people were killed, according to opposition activists. More than half of those killed in the village in Hama province were women and children, with some dying during army shelling and others burnt or stabbed by pro-government shabiha militiamen who arrived an hour later, the Syrian National Council said on Thursday.
Syrian state television denied the claim, and blamed ''terrorists'' for any atrocities.
The Qubair attack follows the massacre of 108 people in Houla on May 25.
Bloomberg, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse