Russia, China veto UN resolution against Syria
Last Updated 12:53 p.m. ET
UNITED NATIONS - Russia and China have vetoed a Security Council resolution backing an Arab League peace plan that calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.
The other 13 council members, including the U.S., France and Britain, voted Saturday in favor of the resolution aimed at stopping the ongoing violence in Syria.
The rare double-veto was issued following days of negotiations aimed at overcoming Russian opposition to the draft resolution. Several European envoys said before the session that they felt compelled to call for the vote despite Russia's attempts to seek a delay because of the escalating violent crackdown by Assad's regime.
The urgency was heightened by an assault by Syrian forces firing mortars and artillery on the city of Homs. Activists said more than 200 people were killed in what they called one of the bloodiest episodes of the uprising against Assad. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have been killed over almost 11 months in a government crackdown on civilian protests.
"It is a sad day for this council, a sad day for Syrians and a sad day for all friends of democracy," French Ambassador Gerard Araud said after the resolution was vetoed.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said her country was "disgusted" by the vote.
"Russia and China again vetoed the U.N. Security Council Resolution aimed at bringing an orderly transition to the extreme violence in Syria," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk at the U.N. on Saturday, "sending the U.S., Europe and the Arab League back to the negotiating table and blocking any action by the U.N.
"An angry response by American Ambassador Susan Rice reflected the frustration of the U.S. that even a diluted Resolution - which had removed all sanctions and an arms embargo - could not pass," said Falk.
The lack of action by the U.N., said Falk, "empowers the Assad regime and allows the government to continue to hold on to power."
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France's Araud said Russia and China had "made themselves complicit in a policy of repression carried out by the Assad regime."
Syria has been a key Russian ally since Soviet times and Moscow has opposed any U.N. call that could be interpreted as advocating military intervention or regime change. Russia and China also used their veto powers as permanent council members in October to block a previous Western attempt to condemn the violence in Syria.
"Today the Security Council has failed to live up to its responsibility," German Ambassador Peter Wittig said. "The people in Syria have been let down again."
Earlier Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a security conference in Munich, Germany, that Moscow still two problems of "crucial importance" with the draft council resolution on the violence in Syria.
Lavrov said the resolution makes too few demands of anti-government armed groups, and that Moscow remains concerned that it could prejudge the outcome of a national dialogue among political forces in Syria.
Lavrov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that he and Russia's foreign intelligence chief, Mikhail Fradkov, will meet with Assad in Damascus on Tuesday.
Before the vote, President Barack Obama urged the council to take a stand against Assad's regime and back the resolution.
Mr. "The international community must work to protect the Syrian people from this abhorrent brutality," Obama said in a statement issued by the White House.
In a blistering statement, President Obama said Assad had displayed "disdain for human life and dignity" following the weekend attacks in Homs.
"The Syrian regime's policy of maintaining power by terrorizing its people only indicates its inherent weakness and inevitable collapse," Mr. Obama said. "Assad has no right to lead Syria, and has lost all legitimacy with his people and the international community."
To the Syrian people, President Obama pledged U.S. support and vowed to work with them to build a better future in their country.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met Saturday with Lavrov on the sidelines of the security conference to stress that the United States strongly believes the council should vote on the resolution Saturday, a senior State Department official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said they had a "very vigorous discussion."
In an interview broadcast earlier Saturday on Russian state television, Lavrov had warned that Moscow would use its veto power if several amendments it had submitted were not included in the European-Arab draft of the resolution.
"If they want another scandal at the U.N. Security Council, we wouldn't be able to stop them," Lavrov said, voicing hope that Washington wouldn't put the draft to a vote without Russia's amendments.
"The scandal is not to act. The scandal would be to fail to act," Wittig, the German ambassador, said before Saturday's session.
Russian news agencies quoted Lavrov upon his return to Moscow later Saturday as saying that the amendments were not "excessive" and that consensus on the resolution remained possible "if our colleagues show a constructive approach."
But U.S. Ambassador Rice told reporters as she headed into the council session that Russia's proposed amendments were "unacceptable."
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe of France, a firm backer of U.N. action and also a permanent Security Council member, said the latest outbreak of violence in Syria "underlines the urgency that the U.N. Security Council must break its silence to denounce the authors of this crime."
"The international community must recognize and support the right of the Syrian people to freedom, to security and to the choice of its political future," Juppe said. "Those who block the adoption of such a resolution are taking a grave historical responsibility."
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Do I correctly understand you to stand in favor of American passivity? How then do you propose coming to grips with your own service in the name of this country's might with you coat of weakness? Did you recently convert to an Eastern religion that encourages you to be like water?
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I never stated anything of the sort.
What I've addressed is the identical nature of Russia and China holding their noses and vetoing a valid resolution againt Syria just as the U.S. holds it's nose and vetoes valid resolutions against Israel as a matter of course.
Where do you see a call for inaction in that comparison?
I think you're either drunk or daft.
It seems that the CBS moderator is in bed with Islamic sympathizers as he deleted all replys to the usual paid propogandists.
He left this entire comment board as an Israeli bashing festival when the story is about Syria.
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You come off as a pouting AIPAC schill.....
The U.S holds it's nose and regurlarly vetoes resolutions that rightfully condemn Israeli policy.
China and Russia did the same regarding Syria.
Why do you complain so vehemently about the obvious parallel being drawn?
Oh, you mean all those resolutions in the UN passed by the threat of oil ransom ?
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Syria and Russia turn a blind eye to Syria's atrocities just as the U.S. turns a blind eye to Israel's.
As if the U.S doens't hold it's nose and veto resolutions left and right that condemn Israel.
the "VETO" was expected but mainly "unanimous"
then why blame only Russia? the Russians have clearly shown their support to Bashar's regime from the beginning, unlike some countries who were playing "double game" like France, the United States, UK, Germany and some countries of the Arab League, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan etc. ...
the most regrettable attitude is the United States's, to date their shy statements do not clearly reflect their position
Finally, the vote was a shameful joke
Ban Ki-moon, will continue to count the dead in Syria
in all quietude,
the Syrian people will have the last word
"au revoir"
Why is then the U.S. screaming about the ongoing strife in Syria, but it was paying only lip service to the killing of Bahrainians and Yemenis by its allies? The U.S. doesn't give a damn about dead Arabs casualties. But it wants to exploit them to the maximum to bust Assad, and deprive Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas from a loyal ally, and to deprive Russia from its best ally in the Mediterranean Sea!
This was not, therefore, the typical "Trifecta" win the U.S. tried so hard to score at the UNSC. This would have been a strategic "Tetrafecta (Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, Russia marginalizing) win for the U.S. - if Russia and China had not suspected a rat in the sudden U.S.love for Arabs! Now the Syrian opposition and the Free Syrian Army has started to look more and more like the Nicaraguan "Contras," not like another Arab Spring! Nikos Retsos, retired professor