Russia, China veto Syria resolution at UNSC

Russia and China have vetoed a Security Council resolution backing an Arab League peace plan that calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down. The other 13 council members, including the U.S., France and Britain, voted Saturday in favor of the resolution aimed at stopping the ongoing violence in Syria.  However reacting to double veto, US ambassador Susan Rice called the block "shameful." She said the veto showed how Russia and China aimed to "sell out the Syrian people and shield a craven tyrant." Arab nations also condemned the move. "I would like to express our great regret and disappointment" at the veto, said Morocco s UN ambassador Mohammed Loulichki, whose country is the Arab member of the 15-member council and played a key role in the drawing up the resolution. Western ambassadors highlighted the concessions made to Russia in weeks of negotiations on the draft text. References to sanctions by the Arab League and calls for Assad to stand down were taken out. Britain is "appalled," said its UN envoy Mark Lyall Grant. "It is a sad day for this council, a sad day for Syrians, a sad day for the friends of democracy," said France s UN ambassador Gerard Araud. "History has now compounded our shame since today is the anniversary of the Hama massacre and the day after another heinous massacre in Homs," added Araud, referring to a 1982 massacre in the Syrian city of Hama that killed tens of thousands. Assad s father, Hafez, ruled the country at the time. "Father and son are killing; it would seem to be hereditary in Damascus," he said. The vote took place as Syrian forces pummeled the city of Homs with mortar and artillery fire that activists say killed more than 200 people in one of the bloodiest episodes of the uprising against Assad s regime. On the other hand, Information Minister Adnan Mahmud accused Syrian rebels of shelling the protest hub of Homs to swing a UN Security Council vote in their favour. "The reports on some satellite channels that the Syrian army shelled neighbourhoods in Homs are fabricated and unfounded," Mahmud said in a statement to AFP. He charged that "armed terrorist groups, incited by the Istanbul council (opposition Syrian National Council)" carried out the assault on Homs and other areas "to swing the vote" at the Security Council. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have been killed over almost 11 months in a Syrian government crackdown on civilian protests. The Security Council has now only agreed one statement, which has a lower standing, on the Syrian crisis since protests erupted in March last year. India and South Africa which abstained in the October vote, backed the latest resolution. Pakistan was also among council members to back the resolution.