It is not the first time that Russia and China used their veto power in the UN Security Council to cover up all crimes committed by Assad’s troops against the Syrian people. If anything, Russia and China’s attitude at the UN Security Council provided Assad with impunity.
Throughout the Syrian crisis, both China and Russia blocked resolutions relating to the conflict in Syria. Just a few days ago, both China and Russia vetoed a UN resolution that would have referred the ongoing Syrian conflict to the International Criminal Court (ICC). More than 160,000 have been killed and more than 9 million Syrians had to flee their homes since the beginning of the crisis in 2011.
The Russian justification for casting the veto — the proposed resolution would hurt efforts to reach a political solution in Syria — cannot be more misleading. Moscow’s veto was not driven by its desire to bring about peace in Syria. In fact, Russia has pursued a strategy of buying time so that Assad’s troops — supported by Hezbollah and Iran’s troops — could crush the armed revolution.
Implicit in Russia’s maneuvers is a lack of respect to the lives lost in the conflict. Obviously, Russia is not a responsible member of the United Nations as it failed on many occasion to act out of moral duty. Not surprisingly, the French permanent representative Gerard Araud’s argument that “shared values had to overcome longstanding division over Syria on the Security Council” fell on deaf ears. Russia would not budge.
For Russia, the passage of the resolution would have laid the ground for military intervention. But this is hardly true. Hence, Moscow will not stop defending the culprits of the most horrific atrocities from justice.
It is as if the world is still living the days of the Cold War. Now the Security Council has reached a deadlock over Syria. Those who hoped that the Security Council is the proper forum for pushing Assad to stop his onslaught against his people cannot be more mistaken. Russia will always torpedo any resolution that would affect Assad’s strategy of crushing the revolution. The problem, and herein lies the crux of the issue, is that the western countries know this fact very well. For instance, France — who drafted the latest vetoed resolution — knew in advance that Russia would veto the draft resolution. The question is why France insisted on the vote, to embarrass Russia? Who cares! In the end, more Syrian people are killed on a daily basis and the regime in Syria enjoys impunity.
The Russian and Chinese attitude has underscored that there is a need for a paradigm shift and that the western countries should not get cold feet in the months to come. The only way Russia and its proxies will reconsider their bloody strategy is by creating a balance of forces on the ground. Arming the opposition with lethal weapons therefore is a must. The American’s fear that lethal weapons could fall into the hands of radical is hardly convincing. Assad and his allies have been using this “fear” to further weaken the opposition and the rebels.
And in the end, it is Bashar Assad who is still using the most lethal weapons in his arsenal to kill his people.
Perhaps, getting in a debate about whether Russia is moral or not will not help the situation. Fortunately, key Arab countries understand very well that the matters will only be decided in the battleground. Therefore, the Russian argument about the lack of verifiable evidence of Assad’s crimes is both weak and irrelevant.
Key Arab states are still insisting on arming the rebels so that they can put a huge price tag on the regime. Short of doing that, Assad will not be constrained by his “moral” duty to protect Syria from descending into chaos. Of course, Assad’s mission is less difficult when he finds countries like Russia and China covering up his crimes.
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