Russia, China veto U.N. sanctions resolution on Syria

UNITED NATIONS –Russia and China on Thursday vetoed a U.S.-backed United Nations Security Council resolution threatening the Syrian government with sanctions, upending four months of diplomacy aimed at stemming a crisis that has left more than 14,000 dead and engulfed the country in civil war.
The action dealt a potentially fatal blow to U.N.-Arab League emissary Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan, and cast doubts that Moscow and Beijing are prepared to apply pressure on Syria to meet its commitments to constrain its troops.

Mario Tama/Getty Images - China's Ambassador to the U.N. Li Baodong (R), Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin (C) and United States Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice chat before a vote on a new Security Council resolution on Syria at U.N. headquarters on July 19, 2012 in New York City.

It was the third veto by both countries of a U.N. Security Council resolution seeking to pressure the government of President Bashar al-Assad to curtail its violent crackdown, initially on unarmed civilians and more recently on both civilians and armed opposition groups.
The resolution failed to pass by a vote of 11 for and 2 against, with two countries, Pakistan and South Africa, abstaining. As permanent members of the 15-nation Security Council, Russia and China--both longtime allies of Assad--have veto power. Both had been open about their opposition to the resolution in the days leading up to the vote.
“The Security Council has failed utterly in its most important task on its agenda this year,” Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the council after the vote. “The first two vetoes were very destructive. This veto is even more dangerous and deplorable.”
The standoff in the council raised doubts about the long term future of the U.N. Supervisory Mission in Syria, whose mandate expires at the end of Friday, and which has been severely restricted in its efforts to enforce a broken cease-fire agreement.
In a news conference in Damascus before the vote, Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, the head of the mission, was notably downbeat.
“It pains me to say, but we are not on the track for peace in Syria and the escalations we have witnessed in Damascus over the past few days is a testimony to that,” Mood said.
Mood said that the U.N. team had “done our best, under very challenging circumstances.”

Rice said the United States would no longer “pin its policy” on unarmed U.N. observers lacking even “minimal support” from the Security Council, but would work with a diverse coalition of countries outside the council to “bring pressure to bear” on the Syrian regime.
But there were indications that the West was unprepared to abruptly withdraw the monitors from Syria. Britain circulated a short resolution that would extend the mandate of the mission for thirty days