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China and Russia vetoed on Saturday a UN Security Council draft resolution condemning repression in Syria to avoid “new disorders and victims.” The Sino-Russian veto is intended to allow “the continuation of the search for a peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis,” said Xinhua news agency. “By vetoing, Russia and China argue that more time and patience should be made to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis, saving the Syrian people from new disorders.” Until the last moment, negotiations had continued to try to persuade Russia not to block the draft resolution. After exchanges called “alive” between Clinton and Lavrov, Moscow announced that its foreign minister and intelligence chief to go to Damascus to meet Assad on Tuesday. The purpose of the visit has not been clarified. Moscow said on Sunday that the West has not done enough “effort” to reach a consensus on the resolution. This is the second time that Moscow and Beijing prevented the Security Council out of eleven months of silence on Syria, during which repression has left at least 6,000 deaths, according to activists. A veto of the two countries had blocked a previous resolution in October 2011. Hamadi Jebali, the Tunisian Prime Minister calls on Arab countries to expel Syrian ambassadors. “The Syrian people expected acts. The least we can do is to cut all relations with the Syrian regime. We must expel the Syrian Arab ambassadors and all others,” Jebali said at the security conference in Munich, the day after the expulsion of Syrian representative in Tunisia. Mr. Jebali denounced “the excessive use of the veto”. “It is a right which has been abused, the international community must review such a mechanism,” he said. The Yemeni Tawakkol Karman, public face of the “Arab Spring” and co-winner of 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, also called Sunday all countries to expel the Syrian ambassador. “On behalf of the peaceful people of Syria, I urge you to expel Syrian ambassadors to your countries.” said Ms. Karman, addressing the leaders attending the conference in Munich, including the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “This is the minimum you can do to punish the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.” The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan Sunday called for a boycott of the Russian and Chinese veto which blocked the draft resolution of the UN Security Council condemning repression in Syria. Africa, disaster, Russia, Syria After the veto on Syria, Moscow and Beijing trying to justify their positionadded by chinatimesonline on February 5, 2012 |
