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Western countries to stop bloodshed in Syria, Russia and China disagree
A disappointing day in international diplomacy as Russia and China put a veto on stopping bloodshed in Syria.
Reasons for the civil war in Syria are still unknown, yet total number of deaths in the last 15 months is considered to be around 18000, most of them civilians. 2000 of them have died since Russia and China vetoed the first draft resolution. This is the third time China and Russia have rebuffed decisions towards stopping the bloodshed in Syria.
13 members of the U.N. security council have voted in favor of the resolution calling for the Syrian president to step down. All except for Russia and China who’s veto sets the future of U.N.-s unarmed observer mission in question, because its mandate expired on Friday.
3 months ago al-Assad agreed to the peace plan, but since then has ignored the plan almost entirely. The resolution would have given Syrian president Bashar al-Assad 10 days to act towards ending the bloodshed.
According to Syrian activists, 310 people were killed a few days ago, which is a deadliest attack since the revolt against al-Assad.
Rebels have attacked the capital Damaskus in an organized suicide attack killing Assad’s family member, defense minister and deputy defense minister.
China and Russia opposed to military intervention
The 2 opposing countries blocked the resolution, because of U.N.’s regulations which would allow UN to enforce its decisions with military intervention. Moscow and Beijing figured that might lead to external wars like the ones occurred in Libya last year.
Syria has been Russian ally since Soviet era that might be why Moscow has opposed any UN demands that could lead to military intervention or regime change.
US ambassador Susan Rice assumed that Russia and China’s history is to blame, because they were once alleys in the soviet era, she also added that they: “have consigned the Syrian people “to more violence and have increased the risk of the conflict spilling over into the region.”
Western countries don’t rule out military enforcement if political solutions could not be imposed. The following steps by U.N. are not clear yet, but there have been rumors referring to UN’s reputation going down if the security council won’t take any steps towards stopping the bloodshed.
