Russia, which sells Syria arms and maintains a military base on its coast,
maintained that approving the resolution would have fanned the conflict
through its failure to blame opposition groups equally for the bloodshed,
which the United Nations says it can no longer track after 5,000 deaths.
Ms Rice said supplying arms to Syria’s government is not illegal, but is
immoral.
“They [Russians] say there isn’t an international embargo on arms
preventing them from doing that. That is a fact. But that doesn’t change the
immorality of supplying a dictatorial regime that is killing its people in
massive numbers everyday. And we are deeply concerned about that and
whatever else may have been motivating the Russian and Chinese decision to
align themselves repeatedly with Assad and his brutal tactics,” said
Rice.
Meantime, Syrian forces bombarded Homs on Monday, killing 50 people in a
sustained assault on several districts of the city which has become a centre
of armed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian National
Council opposition group said.
And the US shut its embassy in Damascus and said all staff had left the
country due to worsening security.
Britain said it withdrew its ambassador from Syria, and would seek further EU
sanctions against Syria.
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