International I Hate Sports Club

Russia, China veto UN Syria resolution
Russia and China have vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for Syrian president Bashar Assad to step down.

The veto comes in the wake of increasing international pressure to stop Assad's regime, which has implemented a bloody crackdown since last March.

Russiaâ??s veto was expected since it has military connections to the Assad regime, said CBC reporter David Common in New York.

â??China comes at it from a different reason,â? said Common at the UN on Saturday. "Perhaps it is going in there to try to cushion some of the blow for Russia.â?

Common said that without China's support, Russia would have had to stand alone â?? especially against allies of the Arab League, the 22-nation organization that had put forth the resolution.

The world body's failure to pass the resolution comes after U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the latest atrocrities in Syria on Saturday and told its citizens: "we are with you, and the Assad regime must come to an end."

Opposition groups and activists say more than 200 people were killed by artillery and mortars fired by Syrian forces in the city of Homs overnight.

In his statement, Obama spoke out against the "relentless brutality" of Assad's government and again urged the Security Council to stop the killings.

"The international community must work to protect the Syrian people from this abhorrent brutality," he said.

Activists say the number killed in shelling that began late Friday ranged from 217 to 260, making it the deadliest attack in the central city since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began 11 months ago.

Some activists said the violence was triggered by a wave of army defections in Homs. There have been reports that army defectors have set up checkpoints in the area.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Co-ordination Committees said more than half of the killings from shelling that began late Friday were reported in the Khaldiyeh neighbourhood.

The opposition Syrian National Council described it as "one of the most horrific massacres since the beginning of the uprising in Syria."

The reports could not be independently confirmed and the government has accused the opposition groups of engaging in a propaganda campaign.

Moscow threatened veto

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had been quoted, just prior to the vote on Saturday, as saying that concensus was still possible. In comments made to local media on Saturday, he urged the West to accommodate Russian concerns to reach a compromise.

Lavrov already warned Washington that any attempt to put a draft resolution on Syria to vote at the United Nations would lead to "scandal," a blunt warning that Moscow is prepared to use its veto power.

Lavrov said Moscow had submitted its amendments to the Western-backed draft.

Lavrov said Moscow still sees two problems of "crucial importance" with the draft UN resolution. He said it makes too few demands of armed groups opposing the Assad regime. He also said Moscow remains concerned about whether it prejudges the outcome of a national dialogue among political forces in Syria.

Russia and China, which wield veto power at the Security Council, have blocked previous Western attempts to impose sanctions on the Syrian regime over its crackdown on protests.

Ahead of the UN meeting, France's foreign minister called the massacre of Homs "a crime against humanity, for which its perpetrators will be held accountable."

"The international community must recognize and support the right of the Syrian people to freedom, security and to choose its political future," Alain Juppé said in a statement Saturday.

"Those that would impede the adoption of such a resolution would take a heavy responsibility before history."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague also called upon the Security Council to â??do its utmost to end the bloodshed in Syria.â?

The UN has said that more than 5,400 people have been killed in violence since March. Hundreds more have been killed since that tally was announced, and activists say 200 died in the city of Homs on Saturday.