* All 13 other council members voted in favor
* US envoy Rice says she’s “disgusted” by the veto
* French envoy: Russia, China “complicit” with Syria
* Russia: West undermined push for peaceful solution (Adds further quotes, reactions)
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Russia and China joined forces in a double veto on Saturday to knock down a Western-Arab U.N. Security Council resolution backing an Arab League plan for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside.
The other 13 council members voted in favor of the resolution, which would have said that the council “fully supports” the Arab League plan aimed at ending 11 months of bloodshed as Syria has sought to crush an anti-Assad uprising.
The setback in Arab and Western efforts to defuse the revolt peacefully came after world leaders and Syrian opposition activists accused Assad’s forces of killing hundreds of people in a bombardment of the city of Homs, the bloodiest night in 11 months of upheaval in the pivotal Arab country.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said negotiations on the resolution continued until just before envoys entered the council chamber to vote. But she and other Western envoys said they could not accept what she termed “wrecking amendments” proposed by Moscow “at the eleventh hour.”
The changes, seen by Reuters, would have introduced language assigning blame to Syria’s opposition, as well as the government, for violence in which the United Nations says more than 5,000 people have died.
Western nations reject that notion, saying the government is mainly responsible. Russia, a long-time ally of and arms supplier to Damascus, also wanted to dilute a demand that the Syrian government withdraw its security forces from cities.
“We were interested in consensus but not at the expense of doing violence to the fundamental purpose” of the Arab League plan, Rice told reporters after the vote.
Mohammed Loulichki, the U.N. ambassador of Morocco, the sole Arab member of the 15-nation council, voiced his “great regret and disappointment” and said he was “extremely frustrated” by the failure of the resolution. He added that the Arab League would not abandon its plan.
Dropping the usual diplomatic courtesies, Rice said she was “disgusted” by the Russian and Chinese veto, adding that “any further bloodshed that flows will be on their (Russia’s and China’s) hands.”
“Today we saw which countries support the people of Syria,” she said, adding that others were pursuing “narrow interests.”
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.” He said Moscow and Beijing were now “complicit in the policy of repression” of Damascus.
British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said China had “no excuse” for its veto since Beijing had not raised any objections to the text. He said Western countries would bring the issue up again in the council if the violence continues.
POLITICAL SETTLEMENT
Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari criticized 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 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 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,” Churkin said.
Apparently referring to the United States and European council members, he accused them of “calling for regime change, pushing the opposition towards power and not stopping their provocation and feeding armed methods of struggle.”
Chinese Ambassador Li Baodong criticized 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.
It was the second time that permanent members Russia and China have exercised a double veto on the Syria issue. In October, they killed a European-drafted resolution condemning Syria and threatening it with possible sanctions.
Diplomats said China had been expected to follow Russia’s lead and the decision to veto the text came from Moscow. Russia had complained that the draft resolution was an attempt at “regime change” in Syria.
The drafters had included language addressing Russian concerns, such as a paragraph making clear the resolution could not be used to authorize a Libyan-style military intervention.
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-Putinization” of Russian foreign policy – referring to expectations that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will return to the presidency after this year’s elections.
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Vicki Allen and Jackie Frank)
