The U.N. Security Council must endorse an Arab League plan for a political transition in Syria, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Monday. Ambassador Susan Rice spoke one day before Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Al-Arabi and Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabar Al Thani are scheduled to urge the 15-country Security Council to support the League's plan for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to transfer power to his deputy to prepare for free elections. “We have seen the consequences of neglect and inaction by this council over the course of the last 10 months, not because the majority of the council isn't eager to act. It has been,” Rice told reporters at U.N. headquarters. “But there have been a couple of very powerful members who have not been willing to see that action take place.” Morocco has submitted an Arab-European draft resolution endorsing the Arab League plan. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will attend Tuesday's council meeting with Al-Arabi, along with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, also urged the Security Council to adopt the Arab-European draft endorsing the Arab League plan. “The Security Council must act and make clear to the Syrian regime that the world community vies its actions as a threat to peace and security,” Clinton said in a statement Monday. “The violence must end, so that a new period of democratic transition can begin.”
