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Arab League Plan to Resolve Syrian Crisis Fails in Security Council after Chinese and Russian Vetoes

Members of the Security Council failed again yesterday to agree on a resolution that backed the Arab League plan to bring the Syrian crisis to an end. The crisis that began last March claimed the lives of more than 5,500 people according to the United Nations. While 13 Security Council members voted for the resolution, Russia and China vetoed it thus preventing resolution to be adopted.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his disappointment after the Security Council vote saying that it was undermining the role of the international community and the United Nations at the time when Government of Syria "must hear a unified voice" of international community calling for the end of Government's violence against people of Syria, according to the UN.

The plan of the Arab League called for "Syrian-led political transition" and the "political dialogue" between the Syrian Government and the opposition under the auspices of the Arab League, UN reported.

Although the draft text condemned "all violence" in Syria "irrespective of where it comes from," the opposition or the Government, and called for all parties to end it, Ambassador of Russia to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin after the Security Council vote insisted that the resolution's draft text "sent an unbalanced signal" to all parties in Syria with no demands for opposition of Syria to distance itself from extremist factions. He also said that Russia was taking action and was sending high-level delegation to President Assad on February 7 to find a solution and resolve the crisis while on the other hand some members of the international community have been advocating the change of Syrian regime.

The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and many other members all expressed outrage over the Russian and Chinese vetoes, with U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice saying that the Security Council was held hostage for months while one of the two members "continues to deliver weapons" to Syria, according to the UN meetings coverage. She also pointed out that the text itself didn't even call for targeted sanctions, even though many countries called for them or imposed them. Furthermore, she underscored that since the two members vetoed an earlier Security Council action, the Council got reports on possible crimes against humanity committed by Assad's regime and some 3,000 more Syrian civilians had been killed including 250 on Friday alone.

Similarly, Ambassador of Germany Peter Wittig talked about the "crying shame" and how the Council had yet again failed to live up to its mandate. Although Assad had on December 19 accepted the demands of the draft, none of the commitments had been met, Ambassador Wittig stressed. In addition, the vetoed text didn't even make any references to arms embargo or called for international investigations into violations of human rights but instead supported political solution set out by the Arab League, Ambassador Wittig also pointed out.