BEIJING/DAMASCUS – In a front page article in the Communist Party newspaper, the People’s Daily, the West was attacked for supporting the rebels intent on toppling Syria’s president Bashar Assad, eveningstandard reports. Party leaders in Beijing are believed to have been heavily involved in the article which accuses the US and her allies of purposely provoking a “large-scale civil war”. China and Russia angered the West and Arab states this month by blocking a draft UN Security Council resolution that backed an Arab League plan demanding that Assad step aside.In the editorial it is claimed that if the Security Council had passed the resolution it would only have caused more violence.The author, named as foreign affairs expert Qu King, added: “If Western countries continue to fully support Syria’s opposition, then in the end a large-scale civil war will erupt and there will be no way to thus avoid the possibility of foreign armed intervention.”The US, Europe, Turkey and Gulf-led Arab states have all demanded Assad steps down but the West has, so far, ruled out a Libya-style military intervention. However, the Arab League said some of its members were willing to arm the opposition.
