UN Veto ‘Gives Assad a Licence to Kill’
SYRIANS were bracing for yet more violence overnight, fearful the failure of a second UN resolution calling for tougher action against the regime of Bashar al-Assad would unleash another wave of terror across the country.
Condemnation of Russia’s and China’s decision to use their veto powers in the United Nations Security Council was fierce, with Qatar’s Foreign Minister, Khalid Al-Attiyah, saying it gave Mr Assad a ”licence to kill”.
”Yesterday was a sad day,” he told delegates at a security conference in Munich. ”This is exactly what we feared.”
Bloodiest day … mourners gather around the coffins of those killed in government attacks in the Khaldiyeh neighbourhood in Homs province, central Syria, on Saturday.
The US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said the US was ”disgusted” the two countries were preventing UN action on the deepening crisis.
”This intransigence is even more shameful when you consider that at least one of these members [Russia] continues to deliver weapons to [Assad],” she said in the UN.
The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, noted more than 2000 Syrians had died since Russia and China vetoed the previous UN resolution in October.
”How many more need to die before Russia and China allow the UN Security Council to act?” Mr Hague asked.
Syria’s ambassador to the UN, Bashar Ja’afari, criticised the resolution and its sponsors, including Saudi Arabia and seven other Arab states. He said countries ”that prevent women from attending a soccer match” had no right to preach democracy to Syria.
After using its veto power, local media reports indicated Russia would send a small delegation to Syria tomorrow, led by the Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, to meet Mr Assad.
The news was met with disdain by rights groups, with the executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, tweeting: ”So what will … Lavrov say to Assad when he visits Syria on Tuesday? Please don’t use the arms we’re sending you to kill protesters?”