U.N. failure made opponents desperate

ADO - press: The al-Fayhaa stadium in Damascus, the Assad stadium in Latakia, the main stadium in the city of city of Deraa were being used to hold thousands of prisoners, said Ziadeh.

Ziadeh said that the U.N. Security Council’s failure to pass a resolution on the Syria crisis had made opponents of Assad more desperate and more ready to use guns “to defend themselves against the security forces.”

Russia and China vetoed a proposed European resolution on Syria, saying there should be no threat of sanctions against Assad.

Western powers again criticized the veto at a council meeting on the Middle East on Monday.

France’s U.N. ambassador Gerard Araud said that tens of thousands of activists were being held in secret in Syria.

Araud said that those who vetoed the resolution or abstained must explain to the Syrian people and international opinion “what concrete action they propose to end this blood bath.”

“It is tragic that Assad’s barbaric acts have recently been met by silence from this council,” added U.S. ambassador Susan Rice.

Syrian army’s incursions into Lebanon

The United States, meanwhile, condemned the Syrian army’s incursions into neighboring Lebanon and suggested that dissidents of the Damascus regime had either been killed or taken prisoner at the border.

“Over the course of the last few weeks, it appears Syrian forces have entered Lebanese territory,” a State Department spokesman told reporters, denouncing the move and calling on Syria to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty, according to AFP.

“We are also deeply concerned by indications that Syrian dissidents may have been captured and possibly killed during operations near the border.”

Syria on Monday recalled its ambassador to Washington, according to an official television station, shortly after the United States said it had pulled out its envoy from Damascus for safety reasons.

The State Department said Ambassador Robert Ford, an open critic of President Assad’s crackdown on political dissent, had left Syria indefinitely after “credible threats” against his security.

Lebanese officials estimate that 5,000 Syrians, including deserting soldiers and opposition members, have sought refuge in Lebanon since the uprising against Assad erupted in March.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week called on Syria to end incursions into Lebanon after Syrian troops shot three of its citizens dead near the border, warning that such raids could ignite tensions in the region.

Syria first sent it troops into Lebanon months after the outbreak of the country’s 1975-1990 civil war, and kept them deployed in its smaller neighbor for 29 years.

Assad withdrew forces from Beirut in the aftermath of the 2005 assassination of billionaire former premier Rafiq al-Hariri, whose killing was initially widely blamed on Syria.

The powerful Shiite militant group Hezbollah, an ally of Syria’s Bashar Assad, currently controls the majority of seats in Lebanon’s cabinet with its allies