Russia and China vetoed a United Nations resolution Saturday calling on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, despite fresh appeals by President Obama and other world leaders following the deadly assault by Syrian forces on the city of Homs.
Activists say Syrian forces killed more than 200 people in what may be the bloodiest confrontation of the uprising against Assad’s regime. Leading up to the U.N. Security Council meeting, Obama condemned the “unspeakable assault” and called on other nations to support the Arab League-backed resolution.
The other 13 members, including the U.S., France and Britain, supported the resolution. But Russia and China, which both have veto power, blocked the measure. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had said the resolution made too few demands of anti-government armed groups, and that Moscow remains concerned that it could prejudge the outcome of a national dialogue among political forces in Syria.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said America is “disgusted” by the vote.
“For months this council has been held hostage by a couple of members,” Rice said.
French Ambassador Gerard Araud said Russia and China had “made themselves complicit in a policy of repression carried out by the Assad regime.”
The vote forces diplomats at the U.N. to try to work out what could be a more watered-down version, despite the new wave of violence in Syria.
The Homs assault sparked fierce international outcry ahead of Saturday’s meeting. Obama, in perhaps his most forceful statement to date about the unrest in Syria, accused the Assad regime of having “murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and children” in Homs. He called on Assad to step down, describing the violence as a sign of the regime’s “inevitable collapse.”
“Assad has no right to lead Syria, and has lost all legitimacy with his people and the international community,” Obama said in a written statement released Saturday morning.
Ahead of the meeting, he called on the Security Council to act on “this abhorrent brutality,” and take a stand against Assad.
The violence coincided with the 30-year commemoration of the massacre in the Syrian city of Hama by Assad’s father, Hafez.
“Thirty years after his father massacred tens of thousands of innocent Syrian men, women, and children in Hama, Bashar al-Assad has demonstrated a similar disdain for human life and dignity,” Obama said.
The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have been killed over almost 11 months in a government crackdown on civilian protests.
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