UN Security Council to condemn Syria violence, say diplomats

The United Nations Security Council has agreed to a statement condemning widespread violence in Syria's coastal region and calling on Syria's interim authorities to protect all Syrians, regardless of ethnicity or religion, diplomats said on Thursday.

The Russian and U.S.-drafted presidential statement is due to be formally adopted on Friday, the diplomats said. Such statements are agreed by consensus. It comes after the 15-member council met behind closed doors on Syria on Monday.

Several days of violent clashes in Syria's coastal region pitted loyalists of deposed President Bashar al-Assad against the country's new Islamist rulers. A war monitoring group said more than 1,000 people had been killed.

Entire families including women and children were killed in Tartus and Latakia - where members of Assad's minority Alawite sect lived - as part of a series of sectarian killings by rival groups, the U.N human rights office said on Tuesday.

"The Security Council calls on the interim authorities to protect all Syrians, regardless of ethnicity or religion," reads the statement, seen by Reuters. "Syria's interim authorities must hold the perpetrators of these mass killings accountable."

Syria's interim President Ahmed Sharaa said mass killings of members of Assad's minority sect were a threat to his mission to unite the country, and promised to punish those responsible, including his own allies if necessary.

"The Security Council welcomes the Syrian interim authorities' public condemnation of instances of violence and calls for further measures to prevent its recurrence," reads the council statement.

It also "reaffirms its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria and calls on all States to respect these principles and to refrain from any action or interference that may further destabilize Syria."

The statement did not identify any countries. However since Assad was ousted in December, Israel has carried out extensive airstrikes on Syrian military bases and moved forces into a U.N.-monitored demilitarized zone within Syria, in what it has said was a defensive and indefinite measure.

The Security Council statement also stresses the importance of countering terrorism in Syria and expresses "grave concern over the acute threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters," urging Syria to take "decisive measures to address the threat."