An emergency debate on Syria is due to be held at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Member states will consider a resolution condemning the presence of foreign fighters in Qusair, as fighting around the strategic town intensifies.<\/p>\n
Foreign powers have been in dispute over the question of arming the warring parties in Syria.<\/p>\n
The row has overshadowed a US-Russian effort to arrange a conference to seek an end to the two-year conflict.<\/p>\n
The drive is also being undermined by the failure so far of Syrian rebels to agree who should represent them at any such conference.<\/p>\n
The UN’s top rights body will on Wednesday debate a draft resolution condemning the Syrian government’s use of “foreign combatants” in the besieged town of Qusair.<\/p>\n
UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay has warned that the violence has reached “horrific dimensions”, and the resolution before member states calls for immediate access for UN aid agencies.<\/p>\n
The fact that Qatar – along with the US and Turkey – drafted the resolution reflects the deep divisions over Syria, says the BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva.<\/p>\n
The “foreign combatants” are implied to be Hezbollah from Lebanon, who support the Syrian government – while Qatar is widely believed to be supporting opposition forces, some of them also foreign.<\/p>\n
If there is one thing the Human Rights Council hopes to achieve, our correspondent says, it is a pause in the fighting around Qusair, where thousands of civilians are thought to be trapped.<\/p>\n
But the council’s decisions are not binding – only the UN Security Council can order sanctions or peacekeepers, and those options look as far away as ever, she adds.<\/p>\n
Separately, representatives from 40 countries as well as some “special guests” are expected to attend a Friends of Syria meeting in the Iranian capital, Tehran, Iranian officials were quoted as saying in local media.<\/p>\n
{BBC}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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