Without quick progress, Juppé said, the international community would have "to move on to another step which we have already started raising with our partners, under Chapter Seven of the United Nations charter." A Chapter Seven resolution, which can be imposed by the Security Council if member states think peace is threatened by an act of aggression, authorises foreign powers to take measures including military options.
Juppé pointed out however that such a resolution, which was also mooted by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week, was unlikely to pass, alluding to previous Security Council vetoes from Russia and China. He said that 5 May, when Annan is to present his next report on the peace process, would be a "a moment of truth."
If the UN mission "is not working, we cannot continue to accept the defiance of the regime" and the international community will have "to move on to other things to stop the tragedy." He said he hoped Russia would draw the right conclusions from Syria's efforts to block the monitors' deployment.
