Russia blamed Western powers on Sunday for the UN Security Council’s failure to pass a resolution on Syria, saying they had failed to make an additional effort for a consensus.
Russia blamed Western powers on Sunday for the UN Security Council's failure to pass a resolution on Syria, saying they had failed to make an additional effort for a consensus.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov wrote on Twitter that “the authors of the Syria resolution draft, unfortunately, did not want to undertake an extra effort and come to a consensus."
"The result is known," he added.
In parallel, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to visit Damascus along with Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Chief Mikhail Fradkov for talks with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
Gatilov had stated Saturday that the visit was aimed at finding a political solution to the crisis in Syria.
For its part, China's official news agency Xinhua said Sunday that Beijing and Moscow's veto of the UN Security Council resolution on Syria was aimed at preventing more "turbulence and fatalities" in the country.
"It was aimed at further seeking peaceful settlement of the chronic Syrian crisis," the agency said.
"With the veto, Russia and China believed more time and patience should be given to a political solution to the Syrian crisis, which would prevent the Syrian people from more turbulence and fatalities," it stated.
The Russian and Chinese stances came out after French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned Saturday the two countries’ veto, considering that “it encouraged the Syrian regime crackdown.”
Earlier, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe also denounced China and Russia's veto, saying it "paralyzed" the international community.
Speaking to France 2 Television, Juppe said that "I understand it even less given that we made great efforts to accept the amendments presented by Russia and by China.”
"There was no arms embargo, no sanctions, no call for Bashar Al-Assad's departure in this resolution," he stated, adding: “We could not go further”.
