Updated February 05, 2012 08:14:41
ABC News
Russia and China have joined forces in a double veto to knock down a UN Security Council resolution calling for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to step aside.
The other 13 council members voted in favour of the resolution, which would have said that the council "fully supports" the Arab League plan aimed at ending 11 months of bloodshed in Syria.
The United States says Russia and China have sold out the Syrian people, while France has accused them of becoming "complicit in the policy of repression" of Damascus.
The UN vote came as several people broke into the Syrian embassy in Canberra overnight, following similar protests in London, Athens, Cairo and Kuwait, after reports suggested government forces had killed 200 people in the city of Homs.
Up to 40 protesters entered the Syrian embassy in Canberra about 9:30pm (AEDT), causing extensive damage to the ground floor.
Vases were broken, windows were smashed and pictures were torn down when the men broke into the O'Malley building.
Three embassy staff members were forced to take refuge in the basement, but none were injured. The ACT police and Australian Federal Police are investigating.
Shortly before the UN Security Council voted on the resolution, US president Barack Obama denounced the "unspeakable assault" on Homs, demanded that Assad leave power immediately and called for UN action against Assad's "relentless brutality".
The vote was delayed by an hour or two as Russia tried to win support for amendments to the draft.
The Russians were still unhappy with the Arab plan for a political transition. They said the resolution imposes a solution on Syria, and wanted language condemning the armed opposition as well as the Syrian army.
But Western nations rejected the idea of equal blame, saying Syria's government is mainly responsible.
Russia also insisted on dropping a demand that the government withdraw its security forces from cities, but US and European delegations refused to include that change.
Veto anger
Dropping the usual diplomatic courtesies, US ambassador Susan Rice said she was "disgusted" by the Russian and Chinese veto, adding that "any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands."
French ambassador Gerard Araud told the council: "It is a sad day for this council, a sad day for all Syrians, and a sad day for democracy."
UN leader Ban Ki-moon also slammed the veto, saying it had undermined the United Nations.
Syrian ambassador Bashar Ja'afari criticised the resolution and its sponsors, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.
"Is it rational that states that co-sponsor this resolution are states that prevent women from attending a soccer match?" he said.
"Those countries are telling Syria to be democratic?"
He also denied that Syrian forces killed hundreds of civilians in Homs, saying that "no sensible person" would launch such an attack the night before the UN Security Council was set to discuss his country.
Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin denied that Moscow's amendments were last-minute, or that Russia was standing in the way of a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
"Some influential members of the international community, unfortunately, including those sitting around this table, from the very beginning of the Syrian process have been undermining the opportunity for a political settlement," Mr Churkin said.
Chinese ambassador Li Baodong criticised the resolution's sponsors, at least eight of which were Arab states, for "pushing through a vote when the parties are still seriously divided" and said the resolution would not have resolved the issue.
This is the second double veto of a Syria resolution. In October, Russia and China vetoed a European-drafted resolution condemning Syria and threatening it with possible sanctions.
Prior to the vote, several Western diplomats said that if Russia vetoed the resolution, it would be a sign of what they referred to as the "re-Putinisation" of Russian foreign policy - referring to expectations that Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin will return to the presidency after this year's elections.
ABC/wires
Topics: world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, syrian-arab-republic, canberra-2600, united-states, russian-federation, china
First posted February 05, 2012 07:32:39
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