(Near verbatim transcript of remarks ahead of a Security Council meeting)

[Q. on Annan]

Wittig:"We’ve consistently supported Kofi Annan. If he requests us to delay the vote I think we would seriously consider that. We want to give diplomacy a chance. But of course, there has to be a meaningful engagement on the side of Russia and China with our resolution.

As we’ve been saying all along: We don’t want business-as-usual. We want a strong signal with that resolution and the events in Damascus today dramatically highlight the need of the Council to act, at long last.
And as I said before: We have a responsibility. Syria is sliding into chaos. We have been warning about such a development all along. The responsibility for that development falls squarely with the Assad regime. But it also underlines that we as a Council have to come to a stronger action as we’ve had before."