UNITED NATIONS—Russia on Saturday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step aside hours after a reported government massacre in Homs emboldened Western powers to push for a vote despite Moscow's objections.
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. said she was "disgusted" after Russia and China veto U.N. resolution on Syria. (Video: Reuters/Photo: AP)
The U.N.'s failure to pass the resolution means Arab States must now go back to the drawing board and figure out a new strategy for trying to solve the conflict. Analysts believe Gulf states eager to see President Assad unseated may quietly step up financial and arms support for Syria's rebels if there appears little hope of ending the U.N. deadlock.
China joined Russia in voting against the resolution as both countries did with a weaker measure condemning violence in Syria in October. Thirteen of the 15 council members voted in favor Saturday.
Vitaly Churkin, Russia's U.N. ambassador, told the council that "the draft did not accurately reflect the real state of affairs and sent an unbalanced signal to the parties."
Mr. Churkin accused "some influential members of the international community who have been undermining the possibility of a settlement in Syria by calling for regime change."
Chinese Ambassador Li Badong said China voted against the resolution because divisions on the council should have been resolved first. He said Russia's request to discuss amendments was "reasonable."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier Saturday that a vote today would be "a scandal." Faced with unrest at home, Moscow is particularly sensitive to any U.N. action that asks a leader to step aside in the face of a popular revolt.
Instead Moscow proposed a ! slew of new amendments to resolution.
Among them was a rejection of the Arab League's timetable for President Assad to step aside for a unity government leading to democratic elections.
Russia also wanted peaceful demonstrators to disassociate from "armed groups." The changes also stripped details of human rights violations by the government, such as torture, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of children.
Russia wanted the withdrawal of Syrian government forces from cities to be in conjunction with the removal of armed opposition groups.
These were brushed aside by the West and its Arab supporters hours after residents of the restive Syrian city of Homs buried their dead Saturday morning after anti-regime activists say a blistering government artillery assault killed more than 200 people.
The Syrian government denied responsibility for the shelling and blamed armed rebels, calling it a bid to win support ahead of a key vote in the U.N. Security Council, according to the Syrian state news agency.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador, told reporters the Russian amendments were "unacceptable."
"The United States is disgusted that certain members of the council are obstructing our sole purpose here," which was to resolve the Syrian crisis, Ms. Rice told the council. "This is even more irresponsible by one of these members who continues to provide arms to Syria," she said in a reference to Russia.
Ms. Rice said that the Russian attempt for last-minute amendments was "unforgivable."
Philippe Bolopion, Human Rights Watch U.N. director, said: "Vetoes by Moscow and Beijing four months ago were irresponsible. Today, after weeks of Russian diplomatic games-playing and in the middle of a bloodbath in Homs, they are simply incendiary."
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Residents attend a burial ceremony for what activists say are victims of shelling by the Syrian army in Homs Saturday.
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The West and its Arab supporters had agreed to numerous changes in the text earlier this week to accommodate Russian demands.
The defeated resolution would have "fully" supported the Arab League plan for "a Syrian-led political transition to a democratic, plural political system."
A specific call for Mr. Assad to step aside was cut from the draft under a the Russian veto threat. Western diplomats said full support for the Arab League would have implied that Mr. Assad would step aside, as that is a key part of the plan.
At Moscow's insistence, a voluntary arms embargo on Syria was also cut from the draft. Russia is a major arms supplier to Damascus, the capital of Sy! ria.
In addition, the rejected text made clear that it was not authorizing outside military intervention.
It was not clear what impact the vetoed resolution would have on the ground in Syria.
"Will their vote exacerbate the situation on the ground?," asked Peter Wittig, Germany's U.N. ambassador. "I hope not, but it is to be feared and therefore it would have been so important after that massacre today, after the violence that is in store in the coming days, to speak out strongly today. It did not happen and that is truly sad and despicable."
Before the vote a Western diplomat said the resolution "has the potential to make a difference on the ground." He said that if Russia and China would lend support, it would send "a huge signal to the people and leadership of Syria."
It remained impossible to verify activists' accounts of the fighting in Homs or to confirm casualty tolls. Opposition activists in the past have appeared to exaggerate violence reports, especially in the run-up to key U.N. or Arab League votes on Syria. Still, there appeared little doubt that Saturday morning in Homs had been one of the bloodiest episodes of the 11-month uprising.
Amateur videos shot by city residents and posted to YouTube showed dozens of corpses wrapped in white shrouds laid out on the ground waiting to be paraded to burial on the shoulders of thousands of mourners. Other footage showed dozens of mangled bodies stacked atop each other on the floors of a local hospital morgue.
A resident of Homs said government forces began shelling the neighborhood of Khalidiya, which is predominately Sunni Arab and a rebel stronghold, a little before 1 a.m. The attack was provoked, according to this resident, by a series of rebel attacks Friday evening against government checkpoints on the edges of the neighborhood.
The anti-government Free Syrian Army, composed mostly of defected soldiers, has been gaining strength in and around Homs in recent weeks and conducting more audacious and large-s! cale ope rations against government forces.
The shelling ended shortly after 3 a.m. according to activists and residents. Activists put the final death toll at between 217 and 237 dead, though they say they were able to bury only about 90 bodies on Saturday. Activists and one resident of Homs said sporadic shelling resumed late Saturday afternoon.
Fighting continued elsewhere in Syria, concentrated on the outskirts of the capital Damascus and in the province of Idlib on the Turkish border, killing 23 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Following the attack in Homs, Tunis severed relations with Syria and expelled the Syrian ambassador, according to a statement released by the Tunisian Presidents' Office. The decision by Tunis could be an early indication that Arab states may begin acting on their own to isolate Syria after Russia and China. Arab states had backed the resolution, hoping the U.N. would be able to muster the necessary leverage to resolve the crisis after the Arab League had failed to do so.
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